High Court Upholds Sirisia MP John Waluke’s 67-Year Prison Sentence

The High Court has dismissed Sirisia MP John Waluke’s appeal against his 67-year prison sentence handed by the magistrate’s court in June 2020.

Waluke was found guilty of defrauding the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) of Sh297 million alongside his co-defendant Grace Wakhungu, who was sentenced to 69 years in prison.

On Thursday, Justice Esther Maina dismissed the appeal filed by the two, ruling that the charges were proven beyond reasonable doubt, and the sentence is not excessive as it is within the law.

"After carefully considering the evidence, this court came to the conclusion that the appeals have no merit. The criminal charges were proved beyond reasonable doubt," Judge Maina ruled.

Waluke and Wakhungu were ordered to pay their fines of Sh727 million and Sh707 million respectively, or serve the jail sentences.

The judge concluded that the sum of Sh297,386,505 paid to their trading company, Erad Supplies and General Contractors Limited, by NCPB in 2013 was based on fraud. 

“The invoice upon which the claim for payment was based was a forgery. Mr Waluke presented it to an arbitrator knowing very well Erad Supplies and General Contractors Limited had no dealing with the maker of the invoice (Chelsea Freight Ltd) and as a result it was paid the sums by a public body,” said Justice Maina. 

The trial court heard that the defendants received the funds after their company won a tender to supply 40,000 tons of white maize to NCPB. The tender was however canceled after Erad Supplies failed to prove it had sufficient funds to supply the maize.

The company ended up pocketing Sh297 million after they sued NCPB, arguing that by the time the contract was canceled, they had already procured the maize from Ethiopia and that it had been stored by South African company Chelsea Freight in Djibouti for 123 days.

They claimed they were charged $1,146,000 for storage and were anticipating a profit amounting to $1,960,000. 

While convicting the two, Magistrate Elizabeth Juma noted that evidence showed the accused forged an invoice to demand payment of the money charged as storage fees for the maize.