Charles Gichane, a former employee of Heritage Insurance was on Monday fined Ksh7.3 million or spend 3 years behind bars for defrauding Kenya-re of Ksh3.196 million shillings in October 2003.
Gichane was accused, together with John Faustin Kinyua, then Kenya Reinsurance Corporation finance director, of tricking taxpayers to buy a house for the latter at Embakasi’s Villa Franca estate.
The house was supposed to be payments for consultancy services that Gichane was said to have offered to Kenya-re.
Kinyua had written a letter to Gichane to offer “whistleblowing/consultancy” services to Kenya-Re and Gichane accepted with the only problem being that the company's board policy did not allow Kinyua to engage anyone as a whistle-blower or consultant.
Yet, Kenyans had just purchased a house for Gichane as a reward for his consultancy/whistle-blowing services.
When passing the judgment, Chief Magistrate Lawrence Mugambi stated that the two hatched and executed the scheme. He went ahead to fine the two Ksh1 million each for the fraudulent acquisition of the property.
Mugambi also ordered that they must each pay a fine double the value of the house at the time.
By the time of the purchase, the house was valued at Ksh3.196 million meaning they would each pay Ksh6.3 million plus the Ksh1 million for fraudulent acquisition, making the total Ksh7.3 million for each of the accused.
The two had initially been tried between 2008 and 2014 but High Court judge Lydia Achode ordered a retrial owing to a hitch in their initial prosecution.
Probably, they would have preferred the initial judgment passed in 2010 where they were both fined Ksh1 million or faced a jail term of three years.
