Smith and Ouzman agent Trevy Oyombra, procurement officer Hamida Ali Kibwana and former IEBC chief executive James Oswago at the Milimani law courts yesterday /COLLINS KWEYU

Oswago denies bribes to award print tenders

Former IEBC chief executive James Oswago and two others were charged yesterday over the Chickengate bribery saga.

Oswago, Trevy Oyombra and procurement officer Hamida Ali Kibwana denied corruption charges relating to printing contracts for poll materials.

Oswago and Kibwana were released on Sh600,000 bail. Oyombra, the local agent of British firm Smith & Ouzman Ltd, was released on Sh1 million bail. He faces additional charges of soliciting a bribe and receiving kickback.

Oswago denied failing to comply with procurement laws. The prosecution alleged that on May 7, 2010, he awarded a contract for the supply of 57,000 ballot papers for the South Mugirango by-election to Smith & Ouzman, which violated the Public Procurement and Disposal Regulations.

He faced another charge of corruptly receiving Sh2 million from Hamida as an inducement to have the IEBC award a contract to print OMR corrections forms to Smith and Ouzman.

Oyombra was accused of soliciting a bribe of £10,576.00 (Sh1.3 million) from Nicholas Smith to have the electoral agency award the firm printing contracts for the Shinyalu and Bomachoge by-elections.

Prosecutor Jacob Ondari told the court Hamida received Sh2.2 million from Oyombra to have the commission award a contract for the printing of OMR correction forms.

The case will be mentioned on March 1.

Source: The Star