BY SAM ALFAN.
Maverick politician Oscar Sudi has escaped prosecution relating to his alleged fake academic certificates.
SUDI had the last laugh after his acquittal of criminal charges relating to his Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Diploma from the Kenya Institute of Management (KIM).
Nairobi’s Milimani Anti-Corruption Magistrate Felix Kombo threw out as invalid the eight-count indictment preferred against the Kapseret Member of Parliament.
The Magistrate ruled that the glaring legal loop-holes in the investigation by the EACC rendered the case unsustainable.
Kombo recalled that the evidence by the agency’s investigators, Derrick Kaisha and Abraham, was “suspicious and raised credibility questions.”
Interestingly, the first statement from Sudi was recorded without the mandatory caution and outside EACC offices. The statement was obtained “in an unconventional manner” at Nairobi’s Heron Court Hotel, the Magistrate noted.
Further, the second statement recorded from the politician at his office at Nairobi’s Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) was not produced in court, Kombo observed.
The court agreed with Sudi’s defense counsel that the sloppy investigation was deficient and prejudicial to the law-maker. The EACC had violated Sudi’s right to fair trial guaranteed by Sections 49 and 50 of the Constitution.
In his ruling of no-case-to-answer, Kombo acquitted the MP under Section 210 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) for lack of sufficient evidence.
The criminal charges related to forgery, uttering false documents and making false statutory declarations.
