BY SAM ALFAN.
Forty five witnesses will testify in the trial against Garissa governor Ali Korane and four others accused of embezzling Sh233 million.
Appearing before Chief magistrate Elizabeth Juma, the parties also agreed to proceed from where Douglas Ogoti, who has since been transferred to Embu, left the case.
Before the trial was adjourned, Vincent Onyango Ogutu, a former coordinator for the Urban Support Programme was testifying. The witness has informed the court that the World Bank had released a total of Kshs11.5 billion to 45 counties for urban upgrading.
Ogutu, the first witness to testify in the graft case confirmed that the said amount was dispatched to the county for urban development.
“The purpose of the grant of over Kshs233 million to Garissa was to finance infrastructure investment in the urban areas in municipalities,” said Ogutu.
Korane has been charged together with Garissa Municipal Board Manager Abdi Bulle, chief of finance Ibrahim Nur Shurie, head of treasury Mohamed Abdullahi and Mr Ahmed Aden (head of accounting Garissa Municipal Board).
They have denied eight counts of conspiracy to commit an economic crime, failure to comply with law relating to procurement and misappropriation of public funds.
It is alleged that they committed the offence between February 25, 2019 and September 20, 2019 when they allegedly conspired to mismanage public funds allocated to the county government as a conditional grant for the Kenya Urban Support Programme.
He will proceed testifying on November 15 when the trial will resume.
