The court has jailed a suspect in the Ksh180 million Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) scandal for 27 years.
Mukuria Ngamau, the Managing Director of Quorandum Company Limited, was found guilty of defrauding the Youth Fund of Ksh180 million.
He was given the alternative of paying Ksh720 million failure to which he will serve 27 years in prison over the scandal.
Milimani Chief Magistrate Douglas Ogoti found Ngamau and his firm guilty and convicted them in five counts of conspiracy to commit an economic crime, unlawful acquisition of public property and making false documents.
Ngamau has been found guilty of conspiring to commit an economic crime namely disposal of public property through the lawful payment of Ksh180,364,789 from the youth enterprises Development fund to his company for services not rendered.
Ogoti dismissed the businessman's request for a non-custodial sentence saying that the sentence is dictated by Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes.
Ngamau had been charged alongside his wife Doreen Waithera who was acquitted from the case after she entered into a plea bargaining with the State.
During an inquiry by PIC members, the committee was told that two multi-million Shilling contracts were awarded through single sourcing against public procurement regulations.
Ngamau told the Parliamentary Investments Committee (PIC) that he indeed executed the disputed payment.
Quorandam Limited was to provide consultancy services for an ICT strategy design within a period of seven days at a cost of Ksh65.9 Million.
In the second contract, Ngamau's firm was to render consultancy services on specifications of the software to be used in managing operations of the agency at a cost of Ksh114.9 Million.
After securing the second contract, Ngamau revealed to the PIC that he paid Ksh115 Million to an American national identified as Donnie Collins Reeves, for part of the work.
MPs decided to search online for details of the said Mr Collins and to their disbelief, the search returned an obituary of an American who died at the age of 61.
The Quodrandum MD, further disclosed that he had never seen or met the American national, yet he sent him (Collins) the colossal amount through his Chase Bank account.
Detectives later established that Ngamau made several withdrawals from the fund and transferred the money to personal accounts of persons closely related to him, including his spouse Doreen Waithera Ng’ang’a and Tabitha Wanjiku Ngamau, his mother.
Most of the loot from the youth fund was used to purchase luxury homes, pay debts and line the pockets of powerful individuals, law firms and companies.
