Sirisia MP John Waluke sentenced to 67 years in prison after his appeal dismissed

 

The High Court denied the appeal of Sirisia MP John Waluke, finding that the prosecution had established its case against him, and he might now get a 67-year jail term.

Judge Esther Maina of the High Court said that the accusations were proven beyond a reasonable doubt and that the punishment was not harsh because it was legal.

After being re-elected in the general election in August, the MP is serving his third term.

Waluke got 16,461 votes for the Jubilee Party. Nasiuma Wafula got 8,811 votes, and Moses Nandalwe got 3,521 votes for the ODM.

After being re-elected in 2017, Waluke switched parties and joined Jubilee. In 2013, he was elected on an ODM platform.

Through his attorneys, Waluke submitted a 30-point statement in June 2020 outlining what they said were errors and a lack of independence in the guilty decision.

Waluke also argued that he shouldn't have been convicted because the charge sheet wasn't reliable.

He said that crucial witnesses were never brought to testify in the two-year-old case.

He said that politics was a factor in the conviction and punishment, and that the anti-corruption court failed the impartiality and independence criteria.

In a corruption case, the politician was found guilty of stealing Ksh. 313 million from the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB). He was given a sentence.

Along with Grace Sarapay Wakhungu and Erad Supplies & General Contracts Limited (Erad), a business in which the two are shareholders, the MP was accused.

In 2004, Waluke and Wakhungu were meant to provide 40,000 metric tonnes of corn to NCPB via the firm, but instead they kept Ksh. 313 million without providing even a single grain of maize.

However, the offer was canceled because Erad Supplies, a corporation that late businessman Jacob Juma was also a director of, was unable to demonstrate that it had the money to deliver the corn.

Later, the business filed a lawsuit against NCPB, saying that at the time the bidding was canceled, it had already acquired the Ethiopian corn and that it was being kept in Djibouti by the South African company Chelsea Freight.