Nairobi News

Flamboyant city politician Steve Mbogo’s sister Jennifer Mukonyo Mbogo has been arraigned before the Milimani law courts alongside her husband, charged with Sh18.5 million fraud in a fake avocado export deal.

She was charged alongside her husband Nathan Loyd Ndung’u with conspiracy to defraud, obtaining money by false pretences from a firm between March 1 and April 1 this year.

The two were jointly accused of conspiring to defraud Ezetel Kenya Limited of the money falsely pretending that as directors of Avo-veg Health Kenya Limited, they were in were in a position to partner with the firm to finance the avocado export business.

They are charged with obtaining money by false pretences and are facing a total of 13 counts of issuing bad cheques.

They are accused of issuing the 13 bouncing cheques of Sh990,000 on March 28.

The court heard that the two drew the cheques for SBM bank in favour of Ezetel Kenya limited when they had previously instructed the bank not to honour the said cheques, with intent to defraud.

The duo denied the charges before senior principal magistrate Bernard Ochoi. They argued that the matter was civil disagreement and should, therefore, not have been turned into a criminal case.

They claimed through their lawyer Mercy Kinyua that they had paid Sh1.6 million to the complainant and a post-dated cheque of Sh5 million had been drawn for August 31 in favour of the complainant as they sought lenient bail and bond terms.

They said they did not intend to defraud the firm, have a registered place of business and are therefore not a flight risk.

But the firm’s lawyer disputed any payments had been made.

The firm said that the court should consider the fact that the two have proven to be evasive as it was a tall order for the investigators to trace them.

Ochoi said the two will remain in police custody until Monday when he will rule on their bail and bonds application.

The suspects will be interviewed by the probation department for a social inquiry report before the bail ruling.