Kenyans to be extradited to Island on corruption charges

Nambale MP Chris Okemo and former Kenya Power and Lighting boss Samuel Gichuru are to be extradited to the UK to face money-laundering charges.

Samuel Gichuru, the former chief executive of the Kenya Power and Lighting Company, and the state’s ex-finance minister Chrysanthus Okemo are accused of accepting bribes from companies interested in contracts in Kenya’s energy industry.

It is alleged that the corrupt payments were paid into bank accounts in Jersey.

The Island issued international arrest warrants for the pair in 2011 but the extradition process stalled following a dispute between Kenya’s Attorney General and the director of public prosecutions about who had authority over the case. The Attorney General claimed that the DPP had no powers to pursue the extradition, as matters of international relations fall within the remit of the executive.

However, in a majority four-to-one ruling, a panel of Supreme Court judges has given the DPP the right to proceed with extraditing the pair. The judges said the delay in deciding which one of the two offices was responsible for matters of extradition was ‘absolutely ludicrous’.

Justice Willian Ouko told Kenya’s The Star newspaper: ‘For me, whether it is the office of the Attorney General or the DPP, the most important thing is that this court has brought this circus to an end and the proceedings that have been pending in the subordinate court for over ten years can now get going.’

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