Millionaire British printing firm owner Nicholas Smith, found guilty in 2015 of bribing Kenyan bureaucrats and tenderpreneurs to win multimillion-shilling contracts, has finally walked out of prison after completing a three-year sentence, but his accomplices in Nairobi are still walking free, thanks to a snail-pace justice system.
Mr Smith, convicted of giving millions of shillings in kickbacks to officials at the then Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) and the Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) in order to win tenders for ballot and exam papers, respectively, became the poster boy for the “Chickengate” scandal that tainted electoral management practices — and the careers of officials — in the country.
The scandal was named Chickengate because, in many of the printing contracts negotiations, the kickbacks were referred to in e-mail exchanges as “chicken”.
Besides serving his three-year term, the Briton paid £93,693 (Sh12 million) in fines and legal bills.
Meanwhile, Kenyan authorities are still struggling to pursue criminal charges against three individuals that the Briton allegedly paid bribes to.
