Court gives state 7 days to prosecute Nick Mwendwa or close case

The state has been ordered to charge embattled Football Kenya Federation President Nick Mwendwa, who facing corruption allegations over fraudulent acquisition of public funds, within seven days or close his file.

This is after Milimani Senior Resident Magistrate Wandia Nyamu declined an application by the prosecution to detain him for 14 days at Gigiri Police Station pending the ongoing investigations into misuse of public funds worth millions of shillings at the federation.

"I decline the application by the state and l hereby direct that the state to charge the suspect within seven days from today," said Nyamu.

While dismissing the application by the prosecution, she said that it was not in good faith to seek another 14 days in to continue holding Mwendwa in police cells without a holding charge.

"Police arrested and detained Mwendwa irregularly which exhibited bad faith. They brought him to the court without a holding charge even after detaining him for a whole weekend," Nyamu said, in her detailed ruling.

She accused the prosecution of being on a fishing expedition when they arrested Mwendwa over the weekend without having completed the probe into the matter.

The court ordered Mwendwa to remain on Sh7million bond or a cash bail of Sh 4million and abide with all the bond terms imposed by the court on Monday.

The court noted that the police defamed Mwendwa in the public domain by alleging that they were probing him over an alleged loss of Sh513 million yet what was place in an affidavit filed in court was over Sh37.5 million.

The state through Evelyne Onuga did not comment on the figures on Monday when they sought to have Mwendwa detained for 14 days.

Mwendwa has walked home but was cautioned against breaking the imposed bond terms.

Mwendwa had on Monday walked to temporary freedom after spending three nights in police custody.

The Anti-Corruption Court ordered Mwendwa to keep off his Kandanda House office after granting him a bond of Sh7 million with two sureties or alternatively deposit a cash bail of Sh4 million with two contact persons.

As a condition of his temporary release from police custody, the magistrate directed Mwendwa not to address media or attend to any football activities.

Apart from being warned against setting foot at his office, the embattled president was also directed not to contact or talk to any of FKF’s employees.

Wandia asked the police to liaise with Mwendwa whenever they want to interrogate him.

The case will be mentioned on November 25.