Bwana DPP, stop the mischief and produce evidence against Mwendwa

Nick Mwendwa is back. Remember him? The disgraced Football Kenya Federation (FKF) president, who in late 2021was hounded out of office over claims of corruption, locked up in a cold police cell for a few days and later changed in court, before the saga slowly died down.

As the drama petered out, good old Mwendwa at some point did the honourable thing of stepping aside and transferring the functions of his office to his Deputy Doris Petra. But before that, Mwendwa had been freed after the State failed to prefer charges against him over alleged misappropriation of funds at the federation.

At the time, the court had granted the prosecution seven days to prefer the charges, but at the lapse of that period they came up empty.

However, his freedom was short-lived as the state yet again pounced on him and charged him with four counts of fraudulent acquisition of public property. Mwendwa denied the charges and was released on a cash bond of Sh15 million.

All this time, the Office of the Directorate of Public Prosecution, led by one Noordin Haji, behaved as if it had a solid case against Mwendwa. Indeed, at every available opportunity, they would gleefully and mischievously parade the poor fellow to the media in handcuffs, like a common thief.

I asked in this very column why were we treated to this game of charades, while the prosecution had not firmed up its case against the man. Understandably, it wasn’t long before the public lost interest in the story and quickly moved on.

Now it’s happening all over again. Yes, Mwendwa is back. Not as FKF president, though. Rather, he’s hogging all the headlines on the news. Who would have thought that Mwendwa would be hitting the headlines at this time in Kenya, what with all the deafening din being generated by seekers of political office? Unless, of course, he was also campaigning. Which isn’t the case.

In fact, after his ill-advised initial feeble attempt at challenging Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed to a chest-thumping contest, Mwendwa has lately been at his best behavoiur. Now it appears it’s the DPP’s turn to treat the public to some unnecessary mischief.

It’s baffling that this week, within just 24 hours, the DPP withdrew the case against former FKF boss then quickly sought orders to have the man arrested and charged afresh on the strength of new evidence gathered against him.

Then the cat and mouse game ensued, as reports emerged that poor Mwendwa, who was scheduled to appear before the anti-corruption court in Kiambu County, was being sought by officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI). Some reports even had it that the man had gone into hiding to escape the police dragnet.

It’s an all too familiar scenario. Pursuing and arresting Mwendwa is one thing, presenting the so-called “new hard evidence” in court is another matter altogether. We’ve been here before and I’m not holding my breath.

My earnest plea to Bwana Haji is to do all Kenyans a big favour on this matter. He should either present the much-sought after evidence in court or simply let the man walk free. I will repeat what I said here back in November 2021; failure on the DPP’s part to produce the smoking gun will amount to nothing but a persecution rather than a prosecution. I rest my case.

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