An Anticorruption court will today issue directions in a case in which four people are facing fraud charges in the Sh209 million fertiliser scandal.
The matter is listed before Milani Magistrate Celesa Okore.
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The accused persons were charged in May this year and released on different bail terms after denying the charges.
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The first to be charged was NCPB MD Joseph Kimote. He is out on a cash bail of sh 1million.
The charge sheet presented in court stated that Kimote and his co-accused conspired to defraud Kenyan farmers by selling a total of 139,688 bags of 25 kilos each of soil amendment and conditioner valued at Sh209.5 million.
It is alleged that they presented the fertiliser as genuine.
The offence was allegedly committed between March 17, 2022, and March 8, 2024, at an unknown place in the country.
Kimote was separately charged with abuse of office where he is believed to have improperly conferred a benefit to Josiah Kariuki Kimani by executing an urgent contract between NCPB and Fifty One Capital, African Diatomite Industries Limited.
This was to allegedly supply 139,688 bags of 25Kg each of soil amendment and conditioner branded as fertilizer within NCPB depots across the country.
Kariuki is the director of SBL Innovate Manufacturers implicated in the scandal.
He has been accused of packaging soil and distributing it as organic fertilizer to farmers in the Rift Valley region.
It is also alleged that he packed soil in 139,688 bags, each weighing 25kg, and reaping Sh209,532,000. He was released on a sh 5million bond.
He faces trial alongside Kimote, Corporate Secretary Joseph Ng'etich, and advisory committee chair John Matiri, who has been charged with abuse of office for allegedly aiding the fraud. They have all denied the accusations.
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