BY SAM ALFAN.
It is a big blow to former presidential candidate Cyrus Jirongo after failing in his bid to quash claims that he forged a bank cheque to obtain a loan of Sh50 million from Post Bank 28 years ago.
This is after six judges of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice David Maraga dismissed his appeal after being unsuccessful at the Appellate court, Jirongo was trying to make corrections to his criminal case by seeking to introduce ‘supposed new and fresh evidence’.
“We are perturbed, as we are curious at this strange turn of events where the Petitioner now wants to engage this Court in gerrymandering and cat games in the name of adducing additional evidence in an otherwise straight forward appeal,” Justice Maraga together with Deputy CJ Philomena Mwilu, Smokin Wanjala, Njoki Ndung’u and Isaac Lenaona said.
This means Jirongo criminal fraud case pending at Milimani chief Magistarte courts will now proceed to full hearing.
Jirongo, who was charged in August last year, and later moved to the Supreme Court saying he had obtained documents from among others, the Registrar of Companies, that would be have absolved him of any wrongdoing.
The politician also alleged that the Court of Appeal, which gave the Director of Public Prosecutions the greenlight to charge him with fraud, did not give him a fair hearing.
The politician was accused that with intent to defraud, he induced Post Bank Credit ltd to accept a bank charge for a parcel of land registered in the name of Soy Developers, which he used to obtain an overdraft of Sh50 million for his company Cyber Projects International.
It is further alleged that he forged a bank charge purporting it to be genuine and signed by his former business partner Sammy Kogo and Davy Koech.
The court heard that Jirongo later presented the document to the Bank, claiming it was genuine and signed by the duo.
He is alleged to have committed the offences on September 25, 1992.
The politician was also charged with giving false information to Maxwell Otieno, a police officer that he had paid Sh7 million to son of former President Moi, late Jonathan as balance to acquire Soy Developers ltd. It is alleged that he committed the offence on March 27, 2015, information that would have led to the arrest of Moi.
In 2016, the DPP approved charges against Jirongo but the politician moved to the High Court and obtained orders, stopping the trial.
High Court judge George Odunga later quashed the charges after he argued that the case was brought with the aim of settling political scores.
The Judge said it would be unjust to prosecute him for an offence which was allegedly committed nearly two and half decades ago, particularly when both the complainants and the accused contend that the relevant transactional documents may have been lost, misplaced or tampered with.
But the DPP appealed and Justices Alnashir Visram, Wanjiru Karanja and Otieno Odek ruled that there was no evidence of bias, when the DPP brought the charges.
He was then charged with four counts among them obtaining execution of a bank guarantee by false pretense, uttering a false document, forging a bank charge and giving false information to a police officer.
Before the Supreme Court, the politician said he could not get the evidence earlier because his office file was stolen and he had to retrieve them from the bank. He said the documents were only five letters and documents, which had a bearing to his trial.
