Plea bargaining off the table as new charge introduced in Sonko graft case

Anti-corruption Court mmagistrate Douglas Ogoti has directed Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko to appear in court on Monday next week to plead afresh to corruption charges.

The order was made on Monday after the Director of Public Prosecutions amended the graft charges facing Sonko.

A new charge of abuse of office was introduced in the amended charge sheet.

In the amended charge sheet, it is alleged that in January last year, Sonko abused his office by improperly conferring a benefit to himself by demanding Sh10 million from Web Tribe Ltd through ROG Security Limited.

The money was an inducement to facilitate payments to Web tribe Limited by Nairobi City County Government.

Others to be charged are ROG Security Limited, and its director Antony Otieno Ombok, alias Jamal.

The DPP said they his office will not be offering plea bargaining at this stage. Twenty witnesses have been lined up to testify in the case.

Ogoti said the case will be heard on a day to day basis. No applications or adjournment will be entertained during the hearing.

The prosecution has been told to supply a schedule of chronology in which they will call their witnesses.

The case will be allocated five hours on a daily basis with the hearing starting next Monday when a plea is taken. 

During the mention of the case last Wednesday, Ogoti said he always tells parties in corruption cases to seek plea bargaining before the case proceeds to full hearing.

However, the prosecution told the court that they had not offered a plea bargain to Sonko and his co-accused because the defence had not approached them.

Lawyer Cecil Miller for Sonko said as the defence, they had not been approached by the prosecution so that they could seek instructions from their clients on the issue.

A plea bargain is an agreement between an accused and the DPP where he or she agrees to plead guilty to a charge in return of a lesser sentence or in corruption cases they agree to return all the money that was lost back to the state.