Ghosts of Ksh.50M 'Chicken gate' scandal return to haunt Davis Chirchir at CS vetting

Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary nominee Davis Chirchir has denied playing any part in the infamous ‘Chicken gate’ scandal that rocked the now defunct Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) 12 years ago.

The scandal revealed pay outs amounting to millions of shilling by U.K firm Smith and Ouzman to Kenyan election officials ostensibly for the award of lucrative ballot paper printing contracts.

Chirchir, who was the then Energy CS, resigned after he was listed among 175 people in the scandal, alongside other notable names such as: former IIEC Chief Executive Officer James Oswago, Uasin Gishu Woman Representative Gladys Boss who was the then deputy CEO, lawyer Kennedy Nyaundi, then a commissioner, Kenneth Karani, who was a senior procurement officer and former KNEC Boss Paul Wasanga.

However, while appearing before the National Assembly’s Committee on Appointments for vetting after his nomination back to the very same Energy CS position on Tuesday, Chirchir denied any involvement in the scandal saying he had been cleared.

Chirchir absolved himself from the matter saying investigations were conducted and those found to have allegedly participated in the scam were arraigned in court.

He said he resigned from government after his name was mentioned purely to allow for probe to be conducted in line with the Constitution, intimating that that in no way showed his guilt.

“In the President’s State of the Nation address of Thursday, March 26, 2015, my name was among 175 that were tabled in Parliament on allegations that I was not aware of. I wrote to the President, as he had basically requested those who had been mentioned, to step aside to allow investigations to take part in line with Chapter 6 and the other clauses requiring integrity of the office such as the one I held,” he told the MPs.

“The investigations were completed and I managed to get documentation to prove that those who were found culpable were charged and I was not one of them. I went to my lawyer and asked them to confirm whether the file had been closed, because investigations – in my own understanding – had been finished, and those who were found culpable had been taken to court and charged.”

He added: “I have a letter done to the Clerk of the National Assembly which is, basically, absolving me of any liability in terms of those who were found culpable, and I expect that the Clerk should’ve put that in the file to close this matter once and for all.”

The ‘Chicken gate' scandal occurred over the course of two years (October 1, 2008 - December 2010), during which senior managers and commissioners at IIEC were beneficiaries of kickbacks from Smith and Ouzman, a UK- based company specialising in printing security documents.

The bribes amounted to about Ksh.50 million. This was done by inflating most of the printing contracts by up to 38 per cent.

The underhand cash deals even had a code name in the emails exchanged between the printer and election officials.

‘Chicken’ was the word that would facilitate Smith and Ouzman winning seven tenders to supply election materials such as ballot papers, voter registration forms, voter ID cards and nomination forms.

All these revelations came out in a four-year-long forensic investigation carried out by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office, that investigates and prosecutes serious and complex fraud cases, including bribery and corruption.

A 2014 case prosecuting senior managers at Smith and Ouzman revealed that the printer provided election materials for the 2010 Constitution referendum, four parliamentary by-elections held in Shinyalu, Bomachoge, South Mugirango and Matuga as well as a host of civic polls.

The senior managers at Smith and Ouzman implicated in the case included Christopher Smith (the former chairman), his son Nicholas Smith who handled sales and marketing, Tim Forrester who served as the international sales manager, and Trevy James Oyombra, the Kenyan agent.

The funds were mostly transferred to Mr Oyombra’s accounts held at KCB and then distributed to beneficiaries.

This evidence was enough to see Nicholas Smith serve three years in jail while his father Christopher, got a one-and-a-half year suspended term with a 250-hour community service.