The Mt Kenya Times 
Sirisia legislator John Waluke
By: Elijah Maingi
Worth Noting:
- The MP, in court papers, also wants the judges to determine whether a director of a company in the position he was in and for whom there is no evidence in the record that he was involved in the day-to-day running of the company and was also not involved in the transactions, is criminally culpable for a transaction that he never participated.
- Part of Waluke and Grace Wakhungu’s burden at the Industrial Area and Lang’ata Women’s Prison is serving part of the jail term on behalf of Erad Supplies Company.
The Court of Appeal has freed Sirisia legislator John Waluke on a Ksh.10 million cash bail pending appeal in which he had been jailed for 67 years. This partial freedom comes barely a few days after the lawmaker appealed the jail term slapped on him by the High Court terming it as harsh and unwarranted.
Waluke’s sentencing came in the wake of a graft case in which he was accused of defrauding the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) Ksh.313 million. The Member of Parliament was charged alongside Grace Sarapay Wakhungu, and Erad Supplies & General Contracts Limited (Erad); a company where the two are shareholders.
Waluke and Wakhungu, through the company, were supposed to supply 40,000 metric tonnes of maize to NCPB in 2004 but ended up pocketing Ksh.313 million but supplied nothing. The tender was however canceled after Erad Supplies, a company in which the late businessman Jacob Juma was also a director, failed to prove it had sufficient funds to supply the maize.
The company later moved to court and sued NCPB claiming that by the time the tender was being canceled, it already had the maize procured from Ethiopia and that it was being stored by Chelsea Freight, a South African firm, in Djibouti.
A three-judge bench that includes Judges Asike Makhandia, Sankale ole Kantai, and Grace Ngenye was previously constituted to hear Waluke’s appeal.Through his lawyer Elisha Zebedee, the legislator urged the Appellate court to determine whether payment of monies made according to court proceedings arising from an arbitral award and payment made according to a garnishee order can sustain a criminal charge and conviction.
The MP, in court papers, also wants the judges to determine whether a director of a company in the position he was in and for whom there is no evidence in the record that he was involved in the day-to-day running of the company and was also not involved in the transactions, is criminally culpable for a transaction that he never participated.
Part of Waluke and Grace Wakhungu’s burden at the Industrial Area and Lang’ata Women’s Prison is serving part of the jail term on behalf of Erad Supplies Company.
Waluke wants the Court of Appeal to rule whether the High Court and Magistrates Court had the jurisdiction to sentence him to serve the terms on behalf of the company. The Office of the
Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) led by Alexander Muteti and Victor Awiti however asked the Appellate court to dismiss Waluke’s application to be released on bail terming it as hopeless.
“Applicant was properly convicted and sentenced and is, therefore, until the impugned decision is overturned, serving a lawful sentence emanating from a concurrent finding of the subordinate court and the superior court,” Muteti told the court.
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