Court rejects appeal by NSSF managers over heavy sentence, fine
By Vanessa Sandra, July 9, 2024
The High Court has rejected an appeal by a former National Social Security Funds (NSSF) boss convicted of stealing Ksh1.2 billion pensioners’ funds.
The court threw out an appeal lodged by former NSSF Investment Manager, Francis Moturi (pictured)who was jailed by the Anti-Corruption Chief Magistrates’ Court in 2022 for fraudulently obtaining Sh1.2 billion taxpayers’ money.
Justice Nickson Sifuna, in a landmark judgment delivered on Wednesday, upheld the conviction and sentence of 14 years in jail and Ksh2.4 billion mandatory fine.
Additionally, the Court barred the accused from being elected or appointed to any public office, in line with Section 64 of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act, 2003.
The Magistrate’s Court had found the NSSF boss and others guilty of defrauding the fund of Sh1.2 billion by pretending to have undertaken an investment by purchasing various quantities of shares of the Kenya Commercial Bank, Barclays Bank of Kenya, Standard Chartered Bank, Bamburi Portland Cement Company Ltd, Kengen and Nation Media Group at the Nairobi Stock Exchange on behalf of NSSF yet no shares had been purchased in respect of the amount.
In 2008, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) received a report that NSSF had lost Sh1.6 billion being pension funds through irregular trading in shares by Discount Securities Limited.
It investigated the matter and subsequently recommended to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) the arraignment of Moturi, James Akoya, William Murungu, David Githaiga, Wilfred Weru, Isaac Nyamongo and Orchard Estates Limited and Mary Ndirangu.
The suspects were arrested in 2010 and charged before the Anti-Corruption Court in Nairobi where they pleaded not guilty. On March 1, 2019, the court ruled that all the accused persons had a case to answer and put them on their defence.