A city lawyer and a businessman were on Tuesday, August 22, 2023, charged with defrauding a top Pakistan government official Ksh11 million in a fake water project.
Lawyer Daniel Bosire Kirera and John Martin Chege Kamau were charged after Milimani Chief Magistrate Lucas Onyina declined a plea to defer the case to pave the way for an out-of-court settlement.
“I decline to have the matter deferred for a month to enable Bosire and Kamau to complete the ongoing negotiations. I direct the two accused persons to answer to the charges as nothing bars the court from proceeding with plea taking,” Onyina ruled.
Defence lawyers Danstan Omari, Cliff Ombeta and Shadrack Wambui had pleaded with the court to differ the plea taking 30 days to enable the Advocate and the businessman to complete the ongoing negotiations out of court.
Omari said currently the two accused had approached the complainant and were in the last stage of completing the settlement.
Lawyer Bosire and Kamau were charged with defrauding the Foreign Investor Iftekhar Ahmad Aziz Ksh 11,030,000 pretending that they were in a position to supply him with drilling pipes and scrap metals in the said fake water project.
The duo are said to have obtained the money which is said to be a down payment for the project between January 26 and April 12, 2022, jointly with others who are yet to be arrested.
According to the prosecution, the lawyer and his co-accused person defrauded the complainant knowing that they were not in a position to supply the water project materials.
“On the diverse dates between January 26, 2022, and April 12, 2022, in Nairobi county jointly with others not before the court with an intent to defraud, obtained Ksh 11,030,000 from Aziz that Bosire and Kamau were in a position to supply drilling pipes/scrap metals to the said Aziz a fact they knew to be fake,” the charge sheet states.
State prosecutor Anderson Gikunda however did not oppose the release of the accused persons on bail pending trial.
Omari urged the court to release the two accused persons on reasonable bail terms saying they had been out on a police bond of Ksh50,000.
Magistrate Onyina ordered the lawyer and the businessman to be released on Ksh 1 million bond or Ksh 100,000 each.
The case will be mentioned on September 5 for pretrial and to confirm whether the parties have settled the case out of court.
Lawyer Bosire is not new to criminal charges as in 2016 he was arraigned before a Kiambu law court for defrauding Martin Gathecha, a relative of retired President Uhuru Kenyatta Ksh 25million under the pretence that he could sell a parcel of land located in Runda, Nairobi.
He was charged that on September 2, 2013, and October 18, 2013, at the city centre in Nairobi within Nairobi County jointly with others not before the court with intent to defraud obtained from Martin Gathecha a sum of Ksh25,000,000 by falsely pretending that you were in a position to sell him a plot LR No. 14970/89, IR 52716 at Evergreen Runda.
The land which was at the centre of the case belongs to former Mathira MP Ephraim Maina.
