Graft cases against three governors fail to take off

Corruption cases against three governors and their associates yesterday failed to proceed due to small court space, time conflict and failure by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to furnish the defence with documentary evidence.

Migori Governor Okoth Obado, Mike Sonko (Nairobi) and Moses Kasaine Lenolkulal (Samburu) had turned up at Milimani law courts for criminal trial but the proceedings aborted.

For Governor Obado, the case was coming up for pre-trial conference but Chief Magistrate Lawrence Mugambi adjourned the session after it emerged that EACC was yet to furnish the defence with documents. 

The court heard that out of the 10 defence lawyers, seven had not received the documentary exhibits and so they were not ready for the pre-trial conference of the Sh73 million fraud case. 

The lawyers told the court that when they went for the documents at Integrity Centre to prepare for the hearing of the case, they were turned away.

In another court, the trial of Mr Lenolkulal and 11 others implicated in the Sh84 million fuel supply scandal at the county government aborted due to limited space in court.

They had appeared before trial magistrate Thomas Nzioki, who adjourned the matter until January 26, 2021 since the space in the court was not enough for all parties due to the social distancing rule.  

For Governor Sonko, the trial court was to start hearing of prosecution evidence in the Sh14.1 million graft case where he is charged alongside two others and a trading company.

But Senior Principal Magistrate Peter Ooko heard that the matter could not proceed because the governor and his co-accused were needed in a separate court for hearing of another graft case. He allowed a request to adjourn the matter to October 6.