Two jailed over Nairobi Sh283m cemetery land scandal
Former Local Government Ministry procurement officer Boniface Okerosi Misera and land surveyor Cephas Kamande Mwaura in a Nairobi Court on March 23, 2018 where they were sentenced to two years in prison over a Sh283 million cemetery land scandal. PHOTO | PAUL WAWERU | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Public funds were used to buy 120 acres in Mavoko, Machakos County, which experts considered unsuitable for a graveyard.
- The cost of the land was also found to have been inflated.
Two men have been fined a total of Sh77 million for their role in the multi-million-shilling cemetery land scandal that rocked the defunct Nairobi City Council.
Nairobi was to purchase land to use as a graveyard.
Boniface Okerosi Misera and Cephas Kamande Mwaura will first serve a mandatory two-year jail term then pay the fine, the anti-corruption court ruled in Nairobi.
FINE
But if they do not pay the fine, they will serve an additional one year, the court ruled.
Chief Magistrate Felix Kombo fined Mr Misera Sh40 million for fraudulently pocketing Sh10 million.
The court slapped Mr Mwaura with Sh37.2 million fine for earning Sh9.3 million belonging to the defunct Nairobi City Council.
The jailed men were part of a group of four city council officials and outsiders charged in the infamous Sh283 million cemetery land scandal that hit plans to acquire new burial grounds.
The court convicted them after dismissing their defence that they did not play any role in the land scam.
SCANDAL
They were found to have doctored land transfer documents and earned from the scam illegally.
The court fined them three times what they had acquired in accordance with the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act.
The cost of the land, which was located in Machakos County, was also found to have been inflated and did not meet the requirement of the land that the council needed for a graveyard.
The court also agreed with witnesses who testified that the two were at the centre of the scandal.
The court ruled that the prosecution proved the case to the required standards.
In the cemetery fraud, public funds were used to buy 120 acres in Mavoko Township, which experts considered unsuitable for a graveyard.
Taxpayers lost nearly Sh160 million in the scam.
