- Samoei faced a second count lying that he had a 300-acre land in the Ololung'a area of Narok South subcounty.
- He denied the charges before Milimani chief magistrate Lucas Onyina.
Image: FILE
A third suspect has been charged with theft of subsidised fertiliser as the government cracks the whip on officials and cartels in the agriculture sector.
Farmer Hillary Samoei was charged in a Nairobi court with conspiracy to defraud the government of subsidised fertiliser worth Sh7 million in fake deals. He also faced a second count of cheating and providing false information to get the fertiliser that was meant for farmers.
The prosecution told the court that Samoei, working in cahoots with others who were not in court, conspired to defraud the government of 2,398 bags of subsidised fertiliser each weighing 50kg.
The bags were worth Sh7,063,000. The state said the offence was committed between March 10 and November 21, 2023.
Samoei faced a second count lying that he had a 300-acre land in the Ololung'a area of Narok South subcounty where he was carrying out crop farming thus fraudulently obtaining the said 2,398 bags of fertliser.
The state said he would not have obtained the fertiliser had he not used such fraudulent tricks.
Samoei denied the charges before Milimani chief magistrate Lucas Onyina.
His lawyer Danstan Omari asked the court for bond leniency, saying his client comes from a poor family.
The magistrate granted the accused a cash bail of Sh500,000, a more lenient condition compared to the Sh1.5 million bail earlier granted to others charged before him over the theft.
State counsels did not oppose the bail application but informed the court that the case will be consolidated with similar ones.
Onyina directed the case to be mentioned on January 16, for further orders.
Those already charged are two public officers accused of conspiring to defraud the government of Sh49 million in subsidised fertiliser deals.
The two, Kiprotich Ronald Tonui and Edwin Ombui Oseko, have since denied the charges.
The prosecution accused the duo of conspiracy to defraud the government of 19,913 bags of 50kg subsidy fertiliser valued at Sh49,787,500.
They allegedly committed the offence on July 28, 2023 at an unknown place within the country.
They faced a second count of abuse of office.
Both Tonui and Oseko are employees of the state in the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development and work at the ministry's headquarters at Kilimo House in Nairobi.
Tonui was accused of arbitrarily recommending the registration of Wilson Letuya Mempe as a farmer with 1,800 acres of land for crop farming at Melelo sublocation in Narok South.
Prosecutors said Tonui's arbitrary action caused the farmer to redeem a total of 7,200 bags each 50kg of government subsidised fertiliser valued at Sh18,000,000.
They faced a last count of abuse of office contrary to the law.
The court was informed that Tonui also recommended unlawfully the registration of Wilson Marindany as a farmer with 1, 200 acres of land for crop farming in Narok, which led the said farmer to redeem a total 4,800 bags each 50kg of government subsidised fertiliser valued at Sh12,000,000.
Directorate of Criminal Investigations detectives have since shifted their focus in the probe into alleged fraudulent claims of fertiliser by farmers at the Ministry of Agriculture.
They are said to be combing the register of all registered farmers vis a vis those who requested for subsidised fertiliser.
Sources aware of the probe said the detectives had written to the Agriculture and Food Authority, National Cereals and Produce Board and Kenya National Trading Corporation for details on the registered farmers and fertiliser supplied so far under the subsidy programme.
Last month, Director of Public Prosecutions Renson Igonga told suspects in the Sh500 million fertiliser theft to carry their own cross irrespective of where they come from.
“People should stop doing things assuming that if they come from a a certain region or community, the law won’t haunt them,” Igonga said.
The DPP said most of the suspects are from President William Ruto's Rift Valley backyard.
“They thought that it was their time to do whatever they wanted, but now they have been prosecuted,” he said.
“The subsidy was meant for the farmers not for people to steal, that is why I’m saying those who were caught in the mix will carry their own cross.”
The DPP said fertiliser worth half a billion shillings was lost during the scandal.