A former strategies and monitoring manager at the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), Michael Douglas Oyaro, told Senior Principal Magistrate, Lawrence Mugambi, that tender documents presented by Ben Gethi Wangui and Joyce Makena had been altered.
Gethi and Makena are Directors of Solarmark Technologies which bided for the supply of lanterns for use at the general poll at a cost of Ksh 127,400,000.
Oyora was testifying in a case in which businessman Benson Gethi Wangui, Joyce Makena and Solarmak Technologies Ltd have pleaded not guilty to forging a Tax Compliance Certificate No. KRA /18/038871/2012 purporting it to be a genuine Tax Compliance Certificate issued by the Assistant Commissioner, Domestic Taxes Department, Kenya Revenue Authority.
Also charged is Adan Katello Adano, Kennedy Guaye Ochae, Abdi Elema Ali, Gabriel Ngonyo and Willie Gachanja Kamanga have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit an offence of corruption by altering the substance of a tender submitted to Solarmak Technologies Ltd in respect of tender No. IEBC1/2012-2013 for the supply of solar lanterns for the March 2013 General Election as a result of which the said company was unqualified.
He testified that the tender committee went through all the bidders’ documentation to ensure that all the mandatory requirement were provides.
Among the requirements were the bid bonds, tax compliance certificates among other documents for those who did not meet the set criteria were disqualified.
Testifying against Gethi, Makena, and six others, Oyaro told the Magistrate the tender document which were opened by the IEBC tender committee indicated that Solarmark was the lowest bidder having quoted that it would supply 3,750 units of lanterns totaling to 28,000 at a cost of Ksh 105,400,000.
But in the IEBC tender register Solarmark of Gethi and Makena indicated it would supply the lanterns at a cost of Ksh 127,400,000.
