John Waluke to serve 57-year jail term amid dismissal of his Appeal by High Court

The High Court has ruled a 57-year jail term for Sirisia Member of Parliament, John Waluke after his appeal to the Court dissolved and the prosecution established its case against him.

High Court Justice Esther Maina demonstrated that the allegations were true beyond a reasonable doubt and that the sentence was appropriate under the law.

Waluke’s sentence came in the wake of a graft case in which he was accused of defrauding the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) of Ksh. 313 million.

In June 2020, he submitted a 30-point document via his lawyer, outlining what they said were errors and a lack of independence in the felony conviction.

Waluke also challenged his conviction, claiming it was based on an incorrect charge sheet.

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He asserted that in the two-year-old case, key witnesses were never called to testify.

He also claimed that the anti-corruption court failed the impartiality and independence test, claiming that politics played a role in the conviction and sentencing.

Among other convicts charged with Waluke were Grace Sarapay Wakhungu, and Erad Supplies & General Contracts Limited (Erad); a company where the two are shareholders.

Through the enterprise, Waluke and Wakhungu were meant to provide 40,000 metric tonnes of maize to NCPB in 2004 but instead pocketed Ksh. 313 million without providing even a single grain of maize.

But the tender was scrapped because Erad Supplies, a business that late businessman Jacob Juma was also a director of, was unable to demonstrate that it had the money to deliver the corn.

The company later filed a lawsuit against NCPB, saying that by the time the tender was canceled, it had already acquired the Ethiopian corn and that it was being kept in Djibouti by the South African company Chelsea Freight.

Meanwhile, the MP is serving in his third term after being re-elected in the August General Election.

He contested under the Jubilee Party ticket and got 16,461 votes, followed by Nasiuma Wafula (8,811) and Moses Nandalwe of ODM (3,521).

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