Former Kenya Power boss James Gichuru and former cabinet minister Chris Okemo will face 14 years in jail for theft and money laundering in New Jersey. This is after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) was given the green light to proceed with their extradition pursuit which had stalled at a magistrate court ten years ago following opposition from the Attorney General’s office.
Okemo and Gichuru are wanted by the Royal Court of Jersey for taking bribes from foreign businesses that won tenders at Kenya Power. The Royal Court says that proceeds of their dirty deals were then wired to the Island territory.
The Jersey court had issued warrants for the arrest of the two on April 8, 2010, and April 20, 2011. Okemo was the Minister for Energy between 1991 and 2001. Gichuru on the other hand was the KPLC Managing Director between 1984 and February 2013.
Okemo was charged in the Royal Court of Jersey with 13 counts relating to the transactions in the accounts on July 1, 1999, and 2001. Gichuru faced 40 counts for offences allegedly committed under Jersey law between 1991 and June 28, 2002.
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Okemo and Gichuru are wanted to face 53 counts linked to “commissions” paid by companies to win Kenya Power tenders and held in a Jersey account in foreign currencies: £4.45 million; $3.2 million and kr790,000 (totaling Sh. 1.04 billion at current exchange rates), according to Jersey court papers. The scheme was executed through Windward Trading Ltd — the entity through which Gichuru reportedly received hefty kickbacks to award suppliers lucrative tenders during his two-decade tenure at the helm of Kenya Power that ended in 2003.
