A former member of parliament had been sentenced to seven years in jail for misappropriating more than K1 million.

Mr. Philip Kikala was a member of the Lagaip-Porgera district of the Enga province between 2007 and 2012. Mr. Kikala, being the Parliamentary member of the district and chairman of the District Development Authority (DDA) convened a DDA Board (formerly JDP & BPC) meeting.

During this meeting, Mr. Kikala alluded that the members of the Board agreed that his company named as West Rural Industries Limited be awarded the contract of building staff houses for the Pyrethrum and Potato processing facilities at an allocated cost of K500,000. These funds were to be drawn from the unused District Services Improvement Program (DSIP) for the years 2010 and 2011 totalling K1 million. The Company was registered by the Member while being a Member of Parliament.

Mr. Kikala then wrote to the Department of Rural Development and Implementation citing that for prevention of misuse by the District and Provincial public servants, the funds be paid directly to his company account held with the Bank South Pacific rather than through the district treasury as was the norm.

Four transactions with varying sums totalling K1,107,000 were made into the bank account of West Industries Limited meant for housing projects, chicken house projects, consultations, and project management fees.

It was later revealed that there was no Board meeting. Further, no acquittals or projects were done to justify the transactions.

The National Court sentenced the former member of parliament to seven years in prison adding that if the accused repaid the monies in full at any time, five years of the seven-year sentence term will be suspended.

The former MP appealed the conviction decision but was dismissed by a three-man Supreme Court bench which ruled that Kikala be remanded to serve seven years in prison.