Moses Njagih
22 May 2007
Nairobi — A man who accused a suspended High Court judge of corruption, has now beaten a hasty retreat and disowned the complaint that forced the judicial officer out of the Bench.
The accuser now says he did not facilitate the bribing of Justice Msagha Mbogholi's, which earned him suspension.
Mr Joseph Rukunga further told the tribunal investigating the judge that he had been misled by a politician, who was fighting his political battles, to implicate the High Court judge.
Rukunga, in a sworn affidavit produced before the Justice Majid Cockar tribunal investigating Mbogholi, said he did not have any specific report on corruption against the judge, adding that a former MP misled him to lodge the complaint.
Mbogholi's accuser further told the tribunal that the judge was a victim of a political battle between two heavyweights from Mathira Constituency.
Sacked as MP's personal driver
Rukunga said that former Mathira MP, Mr Matu Wamae, had approached and requested him to appear before the Ringera commission to give evidence against his former employer, Mr Nderitu Gachagua, who is now the Mathira MP, to the effect that the latter had bribed the judge to rule a Sh128 million case in his favour.
"I never made any allegations against any judge, neither did I have any specific report on corruption forwarded by any judge other than the information forwarded to me by Wamae and a booklet he gave me," Rukunga stated through an affidavit obtained by The Standard after the witness testified before the tribunal.
He said on learning that Gachagua had sacked him as his personal driver in 2002, Wamae, who was opposing his boss in the battle for the Mathira seat, capitalised on the situation to taint Gachagua as corrupt.
Wamae directed him on how to implicate Gachagua with corruption and gave him a booklet detailing how the MP had allegedly bribed the judge in a suit between him and the Kenya Ports Authority, Rukunga said.
The driver was promised another job
He promised the driver another job if he made the accusations against his former boss.
"My intention was to report my employer (Gachagua) to the (Ringera) committee but I did not know that his political rivals were capitalising on my differences with him to ensure he was tainted and embarrassed," stated Rukunga.
He said that he could not be the complainant against the judge as he was not an employee of KPA.
"I therefore had no locus standi to complain against the judge when I was not a party to the suit," he added.
Mbogholi was suspended following Rukunga's complaint that he received a Sh1.6 million bribe to enter judgement in favour of Gachagua, who had sued KPA over the company's failure to pay him for services rendered.
This was through the High Court Civil Case 2931/97, James Nderitu Gachagua versus the Kenya Ports Authority.
A surveyor company owned by Gachagua, Jagar Consultants, had been sub-contracted to expand KPA in Kipevu, but the two were later embroiled in a legal tussle over payments, leading to the case, which Justice Mbogholi heard.
In his evidence before the tribunal, Gachagua said that the allegation that he had bribed the judge must have been part of a wider campaign by his political rivals and especially Wamae, to discredit him ahead of the elections.
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