Former NGO boss charged with stealing shop goods worth Sh17 million

NMG

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Elius Kemboi Korir, 41, was charged before a Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Benmark Ekhumbi with two counts of stealing and obtaining goods through pretenses from Kanduyi Investment Limited.
Korir denied fraudulently obtaining the goods valued at Sh 17,110,000 from Kanduyi Investments Limited between August 11 and September 12 2022.

A former Non-Governmental Organization executive has been charged with stealing assorted shop goods worth Sh17 million from a merchant company.
Elius Kemboi Korir, 41, was charged before a Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Benmark Ekhumbi with two counts of stealing and obtaining goods through pretenses from Kanduyi Investment Limited.
Korir denied fraudulently obtaining the goods valued at Sh 17,110,000 from Kanduyi Investments Limited between August 11 and September 12 2022.
The charges claimed that Korir had pretended he was in a position to pay for the goods, a fact he knew to be false.
The former NGO official is accused of receiving the goods on diverse dates between August 11 and September 12 2022 within Nairobi county.
In the theft charge, he is accused of stealing the goods within one year and one day.
Applying to be released on bond, Korir, aged 41, said the complainant had filed a civil case at the High Court seeking payment of the same amount quoted in the charge sheet.
The magistrate heard that Korir was arrested while leaving the High Court on Tuesday, where he was attending the civil case hearing by a judge at the Commercial Division.
"The investigating officer filed this case in a bid to pressure the accused to pay the money quoted in the charge sheet. There is a pending civil litigation concerning this case at the commerce division of the superior court where Kanduyi is seeking to be paid its dues," the lawyer said.
The court heard that the accused had already paid Sh3 million to the company.
His lawyer argued that the move by the police to charge the accused was an abuse of the court process since the same matter was being adjudicated at the High Court.
He presented to the magistrate a raft of documents in respect of the High Court matter and the communication he had had with the complainant over the suit in question.
The accused also availed the magistrate of e-mail correspondence about the payments.
"What the accused is not telling this court is that the monies in question were directly deposited to his personal account," the State prosecutor Virginia Kariuki protested.
In a brief ruling, Mr Ekhubi directed that the accused be held in custody for a pre-bail report on whether to release him on bond or not.