Former NSSF investment manager Francis Moturi and Discount Securities LTD director David Githaiga before chief magistrate Lawrence Mugambi at Milimani Law Courts on January 31, 2022/ The Star
NAIROBI, Kenya May 4- Former National Social Security Fund (NSSF) investment manager Francis Moturi is set to remain in prison pending the determination of his appeal against a Sh2.6 billion fine and five-year imprisonment term over graft.
Justice Esther Maina dismissed Moturi’s request for bail noting that there were no exceptional circumstances to warrant his release from the Industrial Area Prison where he was incarcerated following his conviction over economic crimes committed more than a decade ago.
The judge rejected arguments related to the advanced age and ill-health of the retired civil servant, stating that the two issues do not “constitute exceptional circumstances”.
The 72-year-old was convicted back in January alongside three officials of collapsed stock brokerage firm, Discount Securities Ltd (DSL), for the loss of Sh1.2 billion at the pensioners’ fund.
Former executive director of Discount Securities Ltd (DSL) David Ndirangu, Wilfred Mungoro Weru, a former finance director at DSL, and Isaac Nyakundi, a former investments manager of the collapsed firm, were ordered to pay a total fine of Sh2.4 billion to escape going to prison.
The crimes took place over a decade ago and during the conviction, the four were fined a total of Sh9.6 billion jointly after they were charged with five counts of corruption-related offences.
The court directed the NSSF to recover Sh4.8 billion from the statutory manager of the fund after it was placed under liquidation.
Anti-corruption chief magistrate Lawrence Mugambi said the four conspired to defraud the NSSF through DSL through the purchase of ghost shares.
Moturi himself was convicted of two counts: conspiracy to defraud and deceiving a principal.
In the first count, he was sentenced to a fine of Sh1 million in default to serve two years imprisonment while in the second count he was fined Sh1 million in default of three-year imprisonment.
The court further imposed a mandatory sentence or a fine of Sh2.4 billion for occasioning the pensioners to suffer a loss of Sh1.2 billion at the NSSF.
The amount is twice the money that the NSSF lost between 2004 and 2007 after the four hatched a scheme to defraud pensioners out of their hard earned savings.
The court made further orders that the sentences shall, in default of fine, run consecutively and that none of the accused persons may be appointed to public office for the next 10 years.
Following the judgment, Moturi’s advocates, Assa Nyakundi and Peter Wanyama filed an urgent application seeking to have him admitted to bail, pending appeal. They said he was suffering from high blood pressure and diabetes.
