• Dismissal of application means case will now proceed to trial
• Judge says separating the counts would inconvenience witnesses
The trial of former Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero in the Sh213 million corruption case will now proceed to full trial.
High Court judge John Onyiego on Tuesday lifted temporary orders he had issued on Thursday last week suspending the proceedings at the lower court.
Kidero and eight others are accused of conspiring to commit fraud, leading to the loss of Sh213,327,300 at the county government between January 16, 2014 and January 25, 2016. They allegedly authorised payments to various companies for services not rendered.
The former Nairobi county chief appealed to the High Court after magistrate Douglas Ogoti rejected his plea to be tried separately. Ogoti in a ruling delivered on March 25 dismissed Kidero’s application in which he claimed the graft charge was defective.
Kidero also sought to be charged separately, arguing that the 35 counts in the charge sheet were lumped together with the aim of embarrassing him. But the magistrate said that all the charges as preferred against Kidero met the threshold required in law.
Ogoti also said he found no good reason to order for 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.
Judge Onyiego said no convincing reason had been given to suspend the lower court’s proceedings. He also said no prejudice will be suffered by Kidero even if the criminal case proceeded before his appeal was heard.
However the judge said the issue of overloaded charge sheet with 35 counts is an arguable ground for appeal which needs to be fully ventilated and addressed at a later stage in the course of the hearing of the appeal. But that ground alone, according to the court, was not sufficient to stop the entire hearing process at the lower court.
Onyiego said there is nothing capable of rendering Kidero’s appeal insignificant as it will be heard in the shortest time possible. He set the hearing date for May 14 as the matter at the magistrate’s court proceeds today.
Edited by Otieno Owino