Italian firm bosses ordered to appear in court
By Baraka Karama, September 19, 2019
CMC di Ravenna directors now have 14 days to appear in court and plead to charges relating to Sh51 billion Kimwarer and Arror dams’ scandal.
This is after the High Court set aside the plea which had been taken by their defence counsel Kevin Anami terming it unconstitutional.
In her ruling, Justice Mumbi Ngugi said a corporation can only be represented in court by an officer of the organisation, ordinarily a director.
“Taking into account the need to effectively deal with corruption matters and hopefully deter corruption, it is necessary to have a corporation appear and plead by their directors,” she ruled
The two companies and their CEO Paulo Porcelli, are charged alongside suspended Treasury CS Henry Rotich and others with conspiracy to defraud Kenyan government over Sh51 billion.
Porcelli and the two companies are also accused of fraudulently receiving over Sh7.6 billion public money from the National Treasury knowing it was fraudulently acquired.