Whistleblower or king of sleaze? Jacob Juma exposed

The board was dissatisfied with the award and on October 5, 2009 sought to have it set aside, arguing that it smirked “of mischief, corruption and pure theft of public funds”.

And that is where the judicial circus commenced. Erad hired city lawyer Ahmednassir Abdullahi to argue its case. Specifically, the board asserted that Erad had no maize for delivery within the contract terms. But efforts by NCPB to be listened to by the courts suffered a hitch and they were asked to first honour the determination of the arbiter.

It had been brought to the attention of the High Court, for instance, that Ropack CC International, the company allegedly contracted by Erad to supply it with maize, was actually registered with South Africa’s Department of Trade to offer financial intermediation, insurance, real estate and business services.

More so, the company claimed to have offered storage, namely Chelsea Freight, was registered for air transport.

Although NCPB told Justice Njagi that the entire arbitration process was a circus, the judge was not persuaded that a case for setting aside the award had been made, and so on October 28, 2011 he threw out NCPB’s application. With costs.

COMPANY’S FACE

By this time, Jacob Juma had become the face of Erad Supplies, but the Mwai Kibaki administration did not seem eager to pay the money.

However, months after Jubilee took over the government from Mwai Kibaki, an order was issued on June 15, 2013 by Justice Mabeya for the attachment of NCPB accounts and properties.

Attempts to have the execution of these orders stayed were dismissed by the Court of Appeal and, as a result, NCPB had to forfeit the cash. Some of its properties were attached as a result.

NCBP had an account at Barclays Bank which had Sh297 million. This amount was transferred to a client account at Soita and Saende Advocates, which paid Sh79 million to the lawyers handling the case.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON

While both Wakhungu and Waluke received Sh90 million, it is interesting that the bulk of the money, Sh127 million, went to an unidentified person. Whoever took that money, it appears, was the kingpin of this scam.

NCPB’s funds in various banks were raided and dished out while auctioneers raided its yard and left with vehicles and furniture. There are still other applications in court by Erad to attach various pieces of land owned by NCPB.

But this matter did not end there. After NCPB was frustrated in the courts, the matter was now taken over by the Parliament. It was the House Committee that unearthed what the courts had failed to appreciate: that the entire award was based on fraudulent papers.

When NCPB tried to introduce this new evidence, as it continued to pursue its money, Erad’s lawyer Ahmednassir Abdullahi told the court that the intention of the board in seeking to introduce the report was to intimidate the court and procure the setting aside of the award. He further submitted that one of the recommendations by the board was that members of the Judicial Service Commission be investigated for bench fixing, corruption and abuse of office in connection with the handling of this case.

SERIOUS ALLEGATION

That was the first time the term “bench fixing” was used in the court, and this was a serious allegation that could bring down the entire Judiciary. Through this practice, the courts are managed such that a case goes to a particular magistrate or judge, who has already been compromised. This was a serious allegation and Ahmednassir said the report was designed to cast aspersions and scandalise the court.

In between, in 2016, Jacob Juma started masquerading as a whistleblower and became an ardent critic of the government. On his Twitter handle, he dropped names of those who were out to kill him. Finally, he was killed by unknown assailants. The case remains cold.

Meanwhile, another application by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to adduce additional evidence that would demonstrate that no storage charges in respect of Chelsea Freight were incurred by Erad Supplies was dismissed.

EACC detectives had travelled to Durban, South Africa and visited the Chelsea Freight offices on the 14th Floor of John Ross House, where managers denied not only dealing with maize but also owning a warehouse. They also denied dealing with M/s Luis Dreyfus Africa (Pty) or M/s Ropack CC International, who, according to Erad, had been contracted to supply the maize.

JUDGE’S RULING

These documents had all along been tabled by Wakhungu as genuine and the courts did not look at them until Justice Mumbi Ngugi made a ruling on May 21, 2020, when Wakhungu and Waluke sought to stop the criminal case against them.

“This is one of the documents that was, I believe, at issue in the charges against the petitioners before the trial court,” said Justice Ngugi.

“It is an issue that the petitioners have not responded to at all, maintaining only that there was an arbitral award in their favour. If storage charges were based on a fraudulent document, it may well be that no maize had been ordered and the award in respect of alleged loss of profits may also have been unmerited and therefore a fraudulent acquisition of public funds.”

It was this case, and the determined efforts by the EACC and the prosecutors, that finally saw both Waluke and Wakhungu asked to pay more than Sh2 billion or face a lengthy jail term. It illustrates the circus that goes on within Kenya’s courts.

God help the taxpayer.

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