Jailed Waititu renews freedom bid
From right; Former Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu with co-accused Charles Chege and Eng. Luka Mwangi at Milimani Law Court on March 18 2025.
What you need to know:
- This is the second attempt by the jailed politician to secure his freedom after Justice Lucy Njuguna rejected his first attempt on March 3, 2025.
- Declining to free Waititu on medical grounds, Justice Njuguna said the appellant failed to advance legal grounds to back his release from prison.
Jailed former Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu has filed a fresh application to secure his release on bond pending the determination of an appeal challenging his conviction and sentence.
This is the second attempt by the jailed politician to secure his freedom after Justice Lucy Njuguna rejected his first attempt on March 3, 2025.
Declining to free Waititu on medical grounds, Justice Njuguna said the appellant failed to advance legal grounds to back his release from prison.
Waititu who has now engaged lawyers Kibe Mungai and Ndegwa Njiru to prosecute his appeal alleges he was convicted irregularly as the graft charges against him were defective.
Initially, he was represented by lawyers Danstan Omari, Shadrack Wambui, and Samson Nyaberi.
Waititu says his appeal has a high chance of success and that the conviction and sentence are twin-pronged as he was given an alternative option to pay a fine.
In the renewed application, Waititu asserts that he is not a flight risk and is willing to abide by any conditions that the court will impose to secure his freedom, “including but not limited to furnishing a suitable and credible surety.”
Applying for certification of the bail plea pending appeal, Mr Mungai told Justice Njuguna that the supplementary petition of appeal dated March 11, 2025, be deemed as duly filed.
He also pleaded for the release of Waititu on bond with an alternative of cash bail pending the hearing and determination of the appeal.
In the supplementary petition, Waititu claims that the charges upon which he was convicted were defective.
The serving prisoner states that the money received by Waititu from Testimony Enterprises Limited (TEL) of Charles Chege Mbuthia was Sh 133,399,776.57.
Waititu faults the prosecution for leading evidence that he received Sh147 million.
“There is material inconsistency between documentary evidence tendered by the prosecution as set out in the charge sheet and bank statements diminishes the probative value of the prosecutions’ evidence and undermines its reliability,” states Waititu in his renewed bail plea.
The convict states that Sh88,454,222.33 paid out from public coffers was as per the bill of quantities of the tender awarded to TEL of Sh588 million.
Waititu faults the court for convicting him based on a presumption that the subject contract was unlawful.
The appellant claims that the trial court which convicted him usurped the jurisdiction of the public procurement review board as the prosecution presented the case as if it was an application by an unsuccessful bidder.
“In the absence of any direct evidence linking the monies received by the appellant and his companies— Saika Two Estates Developers Limited and Bienvenue Delta Hotel— to the award of tender to TEL the conviction of the appellant did not meet the requisite standard of proof of beyond reasonable,” states Mr Mungai in the court papers.
Further, the appellants say that Article 50 of the Constitution envisages that a conviction may be overturned by a higher authority; there is no reason why a convicted person should suffer extreme prejudice pending hearing of the appeal.
Waititu prays to be admitted saying unless the court intervenes he will proceed to serve a sentence and it will result in a miscarriage of justice and a violation of his fundamental freedoms protected under the Constitution.
Waititu fell from grace when he was sentenced to serve 12 years in prison by anti-corruption court chief magistrate Thomas Nzyoki for his role in the multi-million-shilling fraud. Besides the jail term, the court also barred Waititu, his wife Susan Wangari, and other co-convicts from holding public office for 10 years after they were found guilty in the Sh588 million graft case.
Waititu was jailed alongside Luka Mwangi, Charles Chege, and Beth Wangeci over receiving money corruptly from the Kiambu County Government in a road tender scam.
Justice Njuguna directed Mungai and Njiru to serve the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission with the fresh bail application to enable them to file responses.
In the first bail application, the DPP, through a prosecuting counsel Victor Owiti, opposed the bail plea, saying the corruption and fraud convict should not be given preferential treatment.
Mr Owiti had urged Justice Njuguna to decline the bail plea and then direct the convict to pursue the request in the course of the appeal.
The prosecutor said the application has not met the required threshold so as to be granted pending the substantive appeal.
Waititu was jailed 34 days ago.
Besides the Sh 588 million graft case, Waititu is also facing another Sh1.9 billion suit.
The lawyers state Waititu is a brave man who will not run away from justice given his public position.
Waititu says that being a former assistant minister, a former long-serving member of parliament Embakasi, and a former governor he will stay on to clear his name before roaring back into public leadership.
Reporting by Richard Munguti, Happiness Lolpisia and Nivah Kirimi