How Tom Ojienda - Sam Mburu conspiracy blocked planned destruction of expired sugar -

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When Senior Counsel Professor Tom Ojienda was arrested at a Nairobi street on 30 December last year, it was a culmination of his long-running dogfights with state investigation agencies over suspected money laundering, tax evasion and corruption issues.

I have read the Director of Public Prosecution's statement with utter shock and disbelief. I would like to state without any fear of contradiction that I do not, I cannot and I have never filed a fake case. I have never conspired with any person to be paid for work not done.

— Prof. Tom Ojienda SC (@ProfOjiendaTom) December 29, 2018

However, due to his intricate networks in the Kenyan judicial system, Ojienda has yet to be probed over the case in which he successfully defended unscrupulous businesman Sam Mburu and his Landmark Freight Services Ltd where the latter imported contaminated sugar for sale into the local market.

Ojienda helped Mburu to block Kenya Bureau of Standards (KeBs) from destroying more than 92,000 bags of sugar worth Sh400 million which Mburu had imported from Brazil. 

KeBs impounded the sugar which it claimed contained excess yeast. However Kenyan News Day independently verified that the sugar imported by Sam Mburu was well past its shelf-life and therefore unfit for human consumption.

The sugar is suspected to belong to Deputy President William Ruto who reportedly used Mburu as front to execute the sugar importation contracts.

While mill white sugar can last up to two years in appropriate storage conditions, Mburu’s yeast infested sugar is being stored in hot and humid warehouses in Mombasa providing ample environment for yeast to multiply.

Ojienda advanced a bizarre argument in court that Landmark be allowed to process and sell the expired and yeast infested sugar like other importers had been allowed.

This argument was in reference to Jaswant Rai, a well connected and large scale industrialist, who was allowed to mill their imported sugar and offload into the market after traces of mercury was found in their product.

Interestingly, as Ojienda was being arrested in the run to the new year, the sleuths from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) had also arrested Samuel Mburu who is a close ally of Deputy President William Ruto and the estranged husband of Nakuru Senator Susan Kihika.

Mburu was arrested over an alleged Sh64 million tax evasion fraud and was being held at the DCI headquarters where incidentally Ojienda also being held.

Ojienda who is front runner as he vies for a second term representing the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) at the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), was dramatically arrested by heavily armed DCI sleuths in what observers relate to an intricate scheme to block individuals perceived to be uncooperative with the Jubilee government from taking up seats at the JSC, especially with several top judges set for retirement.

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