Acquitted: Senator Mandago cleared in Sh1.1bn scholarships scandal

The Nakuru Senior Principal Magistrate ruled that the prosecution, despite producing 138 witnesses, had failed to prove any of the charges against Senator Mandago. 

“The prosecution has failed to establish a prima facie case in any of the charges herein. It shall be of no use to put them to their defence as that shall mean shifting the onus of proving their innocence to them,” ruled the court.

The court found there was no proof of a meeting of minds between Senator Mandago and his two co-accused persons to misappropriate the money.

The court also dismissed four counts relating to abuse of office against Senator Mandago.

The charges

Senator Mandago, who was arrested in march 2023, was charged alongside Joshua Lelei and Meshack Rono with ten counts relating to the conspiracy to commit a felony, stealing, abuse of office and forgery.

According to the charge sheet, the trio was jointly charged with conspiracy to misappropriate Sh 1.1 billion from a bank account registered under the Uasin Gishu Education Trust Fund meant for university fees for students under the Uasin Gishu County Overseas Education Programme.

The offence was said to have been committed on diverse dates between March 1, 2021 and September 12, 2021.

Senator Mandago faced two separate charges of abuse of office where he was alleged to have arbitrarily entered a deal with various universities in Finland and Canada on behalf of the county government of Uasin Gishu without the resolution of the County Assembly of Uasin Gishu.

He's also alleged to have arbitrarily seconded county staff to a private entity, Uasin Gishu Overseas Education Trust, thereby drawing salary from the county government.

Rono and Lelei faced charges of forgery where they were accused of forging a declaration of Trust document in respect of trust purporting to be genuine with intent to defraud. The two also faced three other counts of stealing millions of shillings from the trust fund.

In addition, the court noted that the investigations officer had failed to show how he had arrived at the figure of Sh 1.1 billion considering the fact that the KCB bank manager who had testified in court had denied handling such money.

“The Investigating officer had during cross examination said he arrived at the figure upon making a summation of all monies deposited by the parents and students. The bank account manager on the other hand said the account did not have such money,” noted the court.

On the three accounts of abuse of office, the court ruled that there was no proof that the senator, then county governor, had seconded the county staff to manage a private entity.

He noted that the programme was domiciled at the department of Youth education and sports and handled by the officers in the departments. 

He further noted that there was no proof that Senator Mandago had misrepresented the county in the signing of the MoU with the international universities on behalf of the residents of Uasin Gishu county.

“The prosecution has not shown how the signing of the MoU was prejudicial to the county,” noted the court.

On the counts of stealing against Lelei and Rono, the court ruled that there was no evidence that monies drawn from the trust account had been channeled to accounts of the accused persons.

“I thus hereby dismiss all the charges against the accused persons pursuant to the section 210 of the criminal procedure code and consequently acquit all of them of the charges of conspiracy to commit a felony, stealing, abuse of office and forgery,” ruled the court.

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