A crucial documents holding key to procurement of defective transformers case pitting Kenya Power are still missing, a Milimani court in Nairobi was told on Thursday.
The said transformers are valued over Sh4.5 billion.
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) lists the documents — a tender evaluation report, a budget approval and a negotiation report — as the basic evidence in the graft case alleging abuse of office against 11 of the parastatal’s top managers involved in the procurement of the equipment.
Mr John Mbaabu, a forensic audit general manager, told Senior Principal Magistrate Kennedy Cheruiyot that the documents disappeared mysteriously from Kenya Power offices four months ago and still are yet to be recoveed.
When he was cross-examined by defence lawyers Migos Ogamba and Assa Nyakundi, Mr Mbaabu said: “They could be somewhere in the KP offices.”
Mr Mbaabu, was testifying in a case in which the company’s former legal secretary, Ms Beatrice Meso, and two procurement managers were charged with conspiracy to defeat justice. He absolved them from responsibility, arguing the documents were kept by their juniors.
Ms Meso is charged alongside John Ombui (former supply chain general manager) and former procurement manager Ruth Oyile.
According to the charge sheet, they are accused of conducting their duties irregularly, causing the loss of the original tender documents, while they knew well that they would be relied upon for criminal investigations and prosecutions.
The documents were discovered missing when the DCI’s Serious Crimes Unit (SCU) wrote to the Kenya Power management to surrender them to help in investigating the tender awarded to Muwa Trading Company.
The documents were in the tender file handed over to the SCU, but not in the one shared by Kenya Power.
The company’s owners have been charged alongside the Kenya Power bosses.
