Court postpones ruling on Nick Mwendwa theft case
Former Football Kenya Federation President Nick Mwendwa at the Milimani Law Courts on November 30, 2021 where he was charged with four counts of fraud.
What you need to know:
- Mwendwa’s lawyers want the case be quashed claiming his trial blatantly violates his fundamental and constitutional rights.
- The lawyers claim the DCI irregularly investigated FKF expenditure claiming police usurped the duties of the football body.
Embattled Football Kenya Federation (FKF) President Nick Mwendwa will have to wait until March 8, 2023 to know whether the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji will be allowed to prosecute him over theft of football funds.
Kiambu senior principal magistrate Wilson Rading said the ruling was not ready since the file case had not been returned to him from the High Court where Mwendwa had filed an application to quash the fresh criminal case filed against him.
Mwendwa’s lawyers Eric Mutua, Charles Njenga and Victor Omwebu had appeared before Mr Rading on Wednesday to receive the decision.
“The ruling is not ready. The file is yet to be returned from the high court to enable me pen my decision,” Rading told the lawyers and the Kiambu County Prosecutor Everlyn Onunga.
The magistrate directed the parties to return on March 8 when he will rule whether there is valid case against Mwendwa or not.
Defence lawyers Mutua, Njenga and Omwebu asked the magistrate to quash the fresh case against Mwendwa, saying he had been cleared by Milimani Anti-Corruption Court chief magistrate Eunice Nyuttu.
On July 6, 2022, Nyuttu dismissed the Sh38 million graft case, but the DPP filed a fresh case before the Kiambu Court arguing he has fresh evidence to sustain the new case.
The DPP through Ms Onunga presented a raft of evidence in support of the fresh case filed against Mwendwa.
In the first charge, Mwendwa is alleged to have stolen Sh2,500,000 on May 15, 2021.
The second charge states that on March 4 ,2021 Mwendwa allegedly stole Sh5 million.
The third indictment is that of allegedly stealing Sh1million on May 6, 2021, while the last count is of conspiring to defraud FKF of Sh29,502,709 jointly with others not before the court.
Onunga told Rading that the decision to charge Mwendwa was “informed by the sufficiency of evidence on record, public interest and not any other consideration.”
Onunga, appearing alongside Terry Kehoro, handed to the court and the defence lawyers 71 documents containing fresh evidence in support of the four charges.
The documentary evidence includes bank transactions from Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), NCBA and NIC Bank including the approved budget for FKF for three years.
“FKF approved budgets for the years 2018, 2019 and 2020 was Sh797,259,232 Sh1,241,991,520 and Sh1,004,565,145 respectively,” the inspection report of the FKF committee appointed by former Sports CS Amina Mohamed shows.
Onunga urged Rading to dismiss in its entirety the application by Mwendwa seeking to block the DPP from prosecuting him saying the case has not met the threshold.
“The stay orders sought by Mwendwa are not tenable as he has not met the thresh-hold for such orders and the application is wrongly before the court,” prosecutor Thelma Nanjaya states in an affidavit in support of the DPP's plea to dismiss the case by Mwendwa to prohibit his trial over the alleged theft.
Onunga told Rading that Anti-Corruption High Court Judge Esther Maina declined to restrain the Kiambu trial.
“The DPP prays this matter proceeds for plea taking before the trial court which is well equipped to deal with the quality and sufficiency of evidence gathered in support of the charges preferred against Mwendwa,” Onunga said.
This plea taking ruling has been adjourned to March 8, 2023.
Mwendwa’s lawyers want the case be quashed claiming his trial blatantly violates his fundamental and constitutional rights.
The lawyers claim the DCI irregularly investigated FKF expenditure claiming police usurped the duties of the football body.
