Kisumu Magistrate’s Court Sentences Family Trio to 10 Years for KSh113.2 Million Fraud

Senior Principal Magistrate Fatuma Rashid handed down ten-year prison terms to three members of a Kisumu family after finding them guilty of laundering KSh113.2 million taken from Such Enterprises Limited.

The convicted persons are accountant Christopher Joseph Okal, his brother Vincent Anyumba and their mother Grace Minayo Okal, whose cases were brought forward by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

All three were found culpable of money laundering and of acquiring and possessing the proceeds of crime, each offence carrying a ten-year sentence under the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act; they also received five-year terms for conspiracy to commit a felony under the Penal Code.

In addition, Okal was sentenced to a further five years for stealing by servant, fraudulent false accounting and related theft provisions, while his mother and brother each received three-year terms for theft under the same penal provisions.

The fraud involved the diversion of customer payments and wholesale goods worth more than KSh113 million between October 2020 and July 2021, with Okal allegedly creating fictitious entries in the company’s accounts and directing funds to bank and mobile-money accounts owned by his relatives.

Prosecutors presented testimony from company staff, customers, bank officials and forensic experts, and an audit report highlighted a shortfall of KSh113,227,529 that could not be accounted for.

The magistrate rejected the defence’s claim that the transactions were legitimate business arrangements, concluding that the evidence demonstrated a coordinated scheme orchestrated by Okal, who used his mother’s and brother’s accounts to conceal the money trail.

Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Daniel Karuri urged the court to impose at least ten years for the stealing and laundering activities; the magistrate applied Section 215 of the Criminal Procedure Code and ordered all sentences to run concurrently, giving the trio fourteen days to lodge appeals.