• Kidero wants High Court to suspend criminal case pending determination of an appeal he has filed against a ruling delivered on March 25.
• In the ruling magistrate Ogoti dismissed Kidero’s application in which he claimed graft charges against him were defective.
Former Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero got a reprieve yesterday after the High court temporarily suspended hearing of a Sh213 million corruption case he is challenging.
Justice John Onyiego put on hold the proceedings scheduled to commence on Monday pending delivery of a ruling on Tuesday.
Kidero wants the High Court to suspend the criminal case pending the hearing and determination of an appeal he has filed against a ruling delivered on March 25 by anti-corruption magistrate Douglas Ogoti.
In the ruling Ogoti dismissed Kidero’s application in which he claimed the graft charges against him were defective.
The former governor also sought to be charged separately, arguing that the 35 counts in the charge sheet were lumped together to embarrass him. But the magistrate said all the charges met the threshold required in law.
“There were no good reasons that were placed before me to enable me interfere with them,” he said.
Ogoti also said he found no good reason to order a separate trial as requested by the former governor.
“Separating the counts will mean duplicating trials, causing a lot of prejudice and inconvenience to the witnesses who will have to come to court again and again,” he said.
Yesterday, Kidero through lawyers James Orengo and Nelson Havi told justice Onyiego that their appeal will be rendered nugatory if the hearing at the trial court proceeds on Monday.
He maintained that the charges brought against him are defective and overloaded.
Orengo told court only four witnesses will adduce evidence against Kidero and the overloading of the charge is oppressive.
“My client will be sitting in court for all those months as a passenger…there are charges of taxation in the charge sheet which have nothing to do with Kidero,” Orengo said.
But the Director of Public Prosecutions denied the charge sheet is faulty.
The DPP argued that there is no overload in the charge sheet and the 35 counts are within the law.
“One cannot conspire alone, the more reason why Kidero was charged with the rest,” said the DPP.
Kidero and ten others were last year charged with conspiring to commit fraud which led to the loss of Sh213,327,300 at the county government between January 16, 2014, and January 25, 2016 for services not rendered.
He also faces two counts of dealing with suspect property, leading to loss of public funds.
Kidero is charged alongside former county secretary Lilian Ndegwa, former chief finance officer Jimmy Kiamba, former finance executive Gregory Mwakanongo, former accounting head Stephen Osiro, former acting chief finance officer Luke Mugo, former acting head of treasury Maurice Okere and four others.