National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) Chief Geoffrey Mwangi and Chief Finance Director Wilbert Kurgat have been remanded at Muthaiga Police Station in Nairobi.
The two who were arrested on Friday over ongoing corruption investigations at the company did not take plea as was earlier expected. The two will be forced to spend another night in police custody and return to court tomorrow to know whether they will take plea to the charges.
They appeared before Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi who said that he would give his ruling on Tuesday at 11:30 am at the Milimani Law Court.
The two represented by Senior Counsel Tom Ojienda said that the charges against them were defective, ambiguous and open ended. They further claimed that they were not subjects of the court order that was issued against the parastatal to supply documentation to show the alleged financial misappropriation on the digital payment platform.
The prosecution said that the two were served with a court order to provide the said documents but failed to. However, while arguing for the postponement of plea-taking, the accused’s lawyers said they were not aware of the documents they are said to have failed to produce.
In a statement on Saturday, DPP Noordin Haji noted that Mr Mwangi and Mr Kurgat denied officers of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) access to crucial documents such as payment vouchers and other books that were deemed important to the investigation.
The lawyers however stated that in an earlier court order, investigators did not specify the documents that their clients were to supply.
“Our main complaint is that the charge sheet is defective. Whether or not they were served with an order to avail certain documents, the charge is defective,” said Prof. Tom Ojienda.
State Prosecutor Alex Muteti argued the claims saying that the accused were trying to water down the case against them by refusing to comply with an order claiming that they did not understand it. He further termed the move as impunity.
The NHIF is reported to have lost Ksh. 93 million after it emerged that a 23 acre parcel of land it claimed to have bought in 2002 actually belongs to a group from the Maasai community.
What is your prediction on the court’s ruling tomorrow?