DNK International By Our Reporter,Nairobi.
A Milimani Court has cleared Calvin Otieno Ogallo of all the charges against him after the prosecution failed to prove its case.
IT guru Ogalo had been charged with four counts of conspiracy to commit a felony; being in possession of a firearm and ammunition without a firearm certificate; obtaining registration by false pretences; and acquiring uncustomed goods.
He was charged alongside two Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) employees and seven others where it was alleged that between March 1, 2015 and March 1, 2017, they jointly conspired to steal Sh3,985,663,858 from the KRA.
The money was allegedly lost through manipulating the system to remove, vacate or waive tax penalties.
The investigating officer, Chief Inspector David Chemitil, under cross-examination, stated that he did not have evidence to prove conspiracy and further stated that he had no evidence of the Sh3.9 billion alleged in the charge sheet having been stolen.
Milimani Principal Magistrate Carolyne Nyaguthii Mugo also ruled that the prosecution only proved that the firearm alleged to have been found with Ogalo was capable of being fired but did not prove that it was recovered from him.
“There is no sufficient evidence in the proceedings before Court showing the circumstances of recovery of the firearm from the 1st accused, the place of recovery, or any forensic evidence linking him to the firearm or ammunition.”
The second accused person, Alex Mutungi Mutuku, was charged with electronic fraud; KRA staff Lucy Katilo Wamwandu with stealing by a person employed in the public service; David Wambugu with conspiracy to commit a felony; and Edward Kiprop Langat and KRA’s Kenneth Opere Riaga both with abuse of office.
The 7th accused, Omar Ibrahim, the 8th accused, James Mwaniki Gakungu, and the 10th accused, Joseph Kirai Mwangi, were only charged with one count of conspiracy to commit a felony.
The 9th accused person, Gilbert Kiptala Kipkechem faced two counts of conspiracy to commit a felony and obtaining registration by false pretences.
The prosecution called several witnesses, including KRA employees, ICT and cybersecurity personnel, an arresting officer, a digital forensic examiner, a firearms examiner and a human resources officer.
Both Ezekiel Saina, a former KRA officer and Commissioner in charge of Corporate Support Services and Agnes Muthoni Nganga, the KRA’s former ICT officer told the court that they did not have any evidence that any of the accused persons committed the offences charged or improperly accessed the systems.
The then Head of IT George Muraguru said they discovered a malware and programmes installed on staff computers, including programmes capable of recording usernames and passwords and programmes used to manipulate or remove tax penalties and debts.
Concerning a laptop that was discovered on the 3rd floor of Times Tower which was connected with remote-access activity, he stated that he could not link the laptop to any of the accused persons and was unaware of any meeting or communication between the accused persons to plan the offences.
Salome Kanyugo, a senior KRA ICT/security officer responsible for information systems security and quality management told the court that security monitoring detected suspicious activity emanating from computers associated with Katilo and Riaga, and that the investigation identified applications capable of removing or vacating tax penalties and that key loggers had exposed user credentials.
She further said that approximately Sh1.078 billion in penalties were associated with the username attributed to Katilo and approximately Sh63 million with the username attributed to Riaga.
She however said she had not recommended criminal prosecution of the two but had recommended further investigations since she had not established who introduced the malware or who physically operated the computers.
Both Katilo and Riaga were however found with a case to answer in charges of stealing by a person employed in the public service and abuse of office, respectively.
[DNK-International@August 13,2026]
