Seven parliament staff before trial court at Milimani law court.

BY SAM ALFAN.

Director of Public Prosecution Keriako Tobiko will challenge a decision releasing senior officials working in Parliament.

He moved to the High Court questioning the move by Nairobi Chief Magistrate Daniel Ogembo who ordered that their charge be struck out, they be released even without hearing a single witness.

CM Ogembo based his decision on alleged violation of the accused persons’ right to a fair trial under Article 50 of the Constitution.

The prosecution however wants the High Court to revise and set aside the said order and direct that the matter proceeds to a full hearing.

DPP instituted criminal proceedings against the accused persons on November10 2015 blaming them for conspiring to commit a felony among others charges.

They all pleaded not guilty.

The court proceeded to release the accused persons on a bond of Sh1 million and one surety of a similar amount or in the alternative a cash bail of Sh300, 000.

Several documents could not be availed by the parliament because of their nature of confidentiality.

According to the prosecutor the documents the accused were demanding were classified and contained information that if leaked to the public would expose Members of Parliament dealings and be a matter of national security.

The prosecutor also informed the court that his case was not relying on the said documents to prove his case and that they were in safe custody of the Parliamentary Service Commission.

“The Chief Magistrate has no powers to purport to interpret the Constitution as he did in dismissing the charges citing violation of the accused person’s right to a fair trial since he is not a Judge. The Prosecution supplied all the witness statements and documentary exhibits it intended to rely upon during the trial,” he said.

He also accused CM Ogembo of being unfair and biased. “He never accorded the complainant an opportunity to be heard.”

Further, the Ruling in question undermines the doctrine of separation of powers and specifically the power of the Director of Public Prosecutions to control criminal Proceedings, he argued.

The DPP also urged the court to call for and examine the record in the aforesaid proceedings so as to satisfy itself and pronounce itself on the legality or propriety of the findings and orders as well as the regularity of the proceedings giving rise to the suit.

University of Nairobi security Chief Francis Makau testifying at Nairobi Court on Wednesday September 21,2016.

BY NAIROBI TIMES CORRESPONDENT.

Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria was chief to a group that planned the assassination of University of Nairobi Vice Chancellor.

A court also heard that he attended several meetings in which plans were hatched to eliminate Prof Peter Mbithi.

The group further planned how they would cripple  operations at University.

A witness, testifying under oath said he received information that meetings had been taking place to strategies how to eliminate the VC.

“The informant said a meeting took place at Manga Hotel in Limuru attended by Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria and student leaders who were then jostling for posts in SONU,” he said.

He was testifying in a case where Wyclif Ochieng, the accused had implicated the institution’s sacked  Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Administration and Finance Prof Bernard Njoroge in the scheme.

He was charged with giving false information.

The witness said a decision was made to engage senior police officers in the matter after Mr Ochieng dropped names of “some VIPs in relation to the planned murder.”

UON security Chief Mr Francis Makau told the court that the gravity of the matter and the people mentioned drove them to involve a senior police officer at the county command.

“I felt it should be handled by senior police officers as it involved a death threat and disruption of learning at the campus,” he said.

Lawyer Edward Oonge also wanted the witness to confirm whether they knew a student leader named Mike Jacobs who allegedly recruited Mr Ochieng, of which they answered in the affirmative stating that he was one of the contestants in the SONU elections.

In an affidavit sworn on May 21 Ochieng states that he attended a series of meetings where the plot was being hatched and that he was a member of a gang that had also infiltrated the institution to cause chaos during last years SONU elections that turned chaotic prompting the university to be closed.

He said that he later developed cold feet when the assassination plot was unveiled.

“Towards the end of January 2016, I was invited to attend a meeting at a Nairobi hotel with the financiers,” Mr Ochieng’s affidavit reads.

He states that a politician(Kuria) told a Mr Bongo “to get two Probox vehicles for the mission to kill Prof Mbithi.”

Proceedings resume December 6.

Former Devolution CSMs Waiguru whe eight nys suspects want to be stopped from making any comments about the ongoing case.

BY SAM ALFAN.

Former Devolution Cabinet Secretary Ann Waiguru is on the receiving end after suspects in the Sh791 National Youth Service scam asked her to keep off their case.

The eight also want Ms Waiguru to stop making any comments about the ongoing case.

They have been charged with money laundering.

Lawyer Maina Wachira for John Kinuthia and Paul Van Dame urged the court to bar Waiguru from commenting on the matter completely since it is prejudicial to their clients.

They say Waiguru has been making endless trips to media houses continually making comments exonerating her at the expense of the suspects.

They additionally want the Public Accounts Committee barred from summoning any of the accused.

Call and letters have been dispatched by from the committee summoning them to appear before it on various dates.

Director of Public Prosecution Keriako Tobiko cautioned that he could not speak on behalf of the ex-CS saying she is no longer a public officer or a witness in the case and as such if the court deems it necessary should serve her with summons like any other ordinary Kenyan.

The court has also declined to expunge Charity Gethi from the trial.

Senior Principal Magistrate Martha Mutuku decline the application citing endless time by accused person to appears in court.

Josephine Kabura and Ben Gethi appeared before Nairobi chief magistrate Daniel Ogembo alongside six others on Monday.

They denied 15 counts of money laundering and were released on Sh300,000 cash bail or Sh1 million bond each.

The eight were accused of colluding to wire the amount from NYS coffers and using part of it to purchase property through phony companies.

They allegedly committed the offences between December 1, 2014 and March 2015.

Gethi’s mother Charity, his sister Jedida Wangari and one other suspect did not appear in court.

The magistrate heard that Charity was admitted at Melchizedek Hospital in Nairobi. He issued warrants for the arrest of the two.

The 11 suspects were to answer to the charges in February but were yet to following multiple applications seeking to block their prosecution.

Proceedings resume a day before end month.

Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi looking at a documents he was should during the hearing Anglo-leasing case at Nairobi Anti-corruption Court on Wednesday September 21,2016.
BY NAIROBI CORRESPONDENT.

Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi has told the anti-corruption court that his former colleagues in government are not guilty of stealing Anglo-leasing money.

The money that the government lost with the infamous Anglo-leasing scandal was Sh10 billion.

Mr Mudavadi who at the time was the Transport and Infrastructure Minister took the witness stand in the case involving former Finance Minister and now Kisii County Senator Chris Obure, former Postmaster General Francis Chahonyo, former Financial Secretary Samuel Bundotich and former Permanent Secretary Sammy Kyungu.

During cross-examination by defense lawyers Kioko Kilukumi and Chacha Odera, Mudavadi told the anti-corruption court that “based on all the documentation one cannot say their actions were arbitrary as the laid down procedures were followed.”

The ex- minister said the four did not make a personal decision in awarding the contracts as they were satisfied with the necessary information and documentation required before doing so.

“Minister Obure at the time, authorised payment after being satisfied with information he had sought from my Ministry and cannot therefore be said  to have  acted arbitrarily,’’ he added.

The former senior government officials have since denied conspiring to defraud the government of Sh10 billion by awarding the Anglo-Leasing contracts.

The contracts were entered between the Government of Kenya and two US companies for the supply of internet services in 2002.

He said that he never interacted with Spacenet and Mercantile companies but admitted to signing letters seeking support from the Ministry of Finance after he received information that the Postal Corporation, a parastatal under his Ministry required new technology to improve its services.

Chahonyo and Kyungu are alleged to have initiated the procurement in a network of operations executed between March and July 2002 for which Obure authorised the payments while Bundotich made the payments.

Obure faces two counts of abuse of office and breach of trust by authorising the Ministry of Transport to directly procure VSAT equipment from Spacenet Inc for the Postal Corporation of Kenya without following procurement procedures.

The trial was adjourned to November when Senator Amos Wako is expected to testify.

Former Nairobi County county executives Mr Evans Ondieki at Milimani Law alCourt on Wednesday September 21,2016.
BY THOMAS KARIUKI.

Nairobi County Governor Dr Evans Kidero will now pay one of his former county executives Mr Evans Ondieki a whooping Sh8.8 million for unlawful dismissal.

In a consent entered on behalf of the governor by his lawyer Professor Tom Ojienda and dated August 22 2016, Dr Kidero says he will comply with a court decision that ordered Mr Ondieki be compensated.

The award was issued on August 5 2016 by the Employment and Labour Relation court which included unpaid salaries, gratuity and cost of the suit.

Before his dismissal, Mr Ondieki served as the Environment Executive for Nairobi County.

Justice Nduma Nderi of the Labour Court quashed Kidero’s decision removing Ondieki from office saying it was done in an impervious manner.

The judge said that Governor Kidero was unreasonable and petty in sacking Ondieki on the basis that he attended a church service alongside former Devolution CS Anne Waiguru.

However, Judge Nderi did not see the need to direct the county to rehire Ondieki since he had not asked to be reinstated.

The county government has 30 days to compute the award and file the same for consideration by the court.

Mr Ondieki told the court that his sacking was instigated by malice and political whims.

He claimed he was fired for supporting Waiguru and Dagoretti South MP Dennis Waweru.

On January 26, days after reshuffling his government Kidero appointed Urban Renewals and Housing CEC Tom Odongo to replace Ondieki in acting capacity.

Governor Kidero said the decision was aimed at ensuring efficient service delivery to Nairobians.