Education boss jailed over Sh227m tender scam

PHOTO | ISAAC WALE | FILE Teachers Service Commission secretary Gabriel Lengoiboni teaching a form four class in this file photo.  NATION MEDIA GROUP

In Summary

• Chief Magistrate Doreen Mulekyo pronounced the judgment after the anti-corruption commission, raised a red flag on the process of the tender.
• The director was convicted with three other officials from the Sepu procurement office, namely, Patrick Mwavala, Wilson Shivachi and Bernard Ongige.

By Nation Correspondent
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A Nairobi court Wednesday sentenced an education director and a businessman to serve 12 months in jail for corruption.

Benson Anyona, Director Secondary Equipment Production Unit (Sepu), was charged with fraudulently allocating a Sh227 million tender to businessman Kochhar Vishal, a director of Vulcan Lab, to supply laboratory equipment for secondary schools.

Chief Magistrate Doreen Mulekyo pronounced the judgment after the anti-corruption commission, raised a red flag on the process of the tender.

The watchdog faulted the tender, stopped its execution and asked Sepu to furnish them with all documents proving the validity of the tender, which they failed to do.

However, the unit referred the team to the Ministry of Education where the commission confirmed that there was no documentation of the tender.

They thus froze the tender and started investigations.

“The accused officials approved the release of Sh75 million as down payment for the lab kit tender with an intention of releasing the remaining cash to the businessman,” Ms Mulekyo said.

The director was convicted with three other officials from the Sepu procurement office, namely, Patrick Mwavala, Wilson Shivachi and Bernard Ongige.

However, the three officials were not jailed but were instead fined Sh800,000 each.