BY SAM ALFAN.
The trial of Garissa governor Ali Korane who has been accused of mismanaging Sh233 million county funds has been fixed for hearing in May.
Trial magistrate Douglas Ogoti said the case will be conducted in open court because of the voluminous documents to be produced by the prosecution and unavailability of screens to project the hearing. He directed the case to be heard on May 17.
Prosecution said due to voluminous documents being referred, it would be better for the case to proceed physically.
Lawyer Issa Mansour urged the court to differ the hearing for this week since documentary evidence was crucial in the case and witness credibility was also an issue.
He added that the second accused to the sixth accused are Garissa residents and they will have issues with internet connection and also the defence will have challenges with proceedings virtually with documents running to 3200.
Lawyer Katwa Kigen supported Mansour’s submissions saying the accused preferred a physical hearing.
“It would be better if documents were accessible to court by way of screen. There is the need to have the documents in soft copy for the purpose of cross examination. We support the preposition by Mansour we take the matter out”, added Katwa.
In March, the case was adjourned to allow the Director of Public Prosecution Noordin Haji to include new evidence in the case.
In the case Korane is charged together with four county officials with eight counts of conspiracy to commit an economic crime, failure to comply with procurement law relating to management of public funds and misappropriation of public funds.
Korane and his co-accused persons are that between February and September you conspired to commit an economic crime namely mismanagement of public funds allocated to county government of Garissa as a conditional grant for the Kenya Urban support Programme amounting to Sh 233,506,000.
The were charged that between February 25, 2019 and September 30, 2019 within Garissa County they mismanaged public funds allocated to the County Government of Garissa as a conditional grant for the Kenya Urban Support Programme (KUSP) amounting to Kshs. 233.506.000.
Korane and his co-accused Ibrahim Malow Nur, Mohamed Ahmed Abdullahi, Abdi Shale and Ahmed Abdullahi Aden denied the charges.