A Nairobi court on Thursday acquitted four businessmen accused of attempting to extort Sh30 million from Kilifi Governor Amason Kingi
Senior principal magistrate Eunice Nyutu of the Milimani Anti-Corruption Court freed George Ngugi, Abdul Aziz Alim, Moses Musee Maluki and Noah Akala Aduwo after Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji withdrew extortion charges against them.
The case was scheduled for hearing but it could not proceed because Kingi who is the complainant had already written to the DPP requesting him to discontinue the case.
The magistrate discharged all the accused under section 87 (a) of Criminal Procedure Code. Defence lawyers led by Lewis Kanyoko did not oppose prosecution application to withdraw the case against their clients but urged the court to acquit them under section 204 of CPC.
Section 87 (a) says a withdrawn case can be taken back to court when enough evidence is gathered while 204 would mean the case is terminated and cannot be revived.
The magistrate rejected the lawyer's request.
The four accused are Mombasa-based businessmen. They had denied extortion charges against them. They were said to have introduced themselves as investigators from the Ethnics and Anti-Corruption Commission and were probing a corruption case against Kingi at the Kilifi county government.
During the previous hearing, the prosecution told the court that the case had been adjourned several times because Kingi failed to appear for the hearing, causing the delay.
Ngugi, Alim, Maluki and Aziz had been charged with introducing themselves to Ahmed Ibrahim, the liaison officer to Kingi, as EACC officers investigating corruption at the county of Kilifi when they were not.
The four were charged with extorting Sh30 million from Kingi.
The alleged offence was committed on June 20, 2018 at Gracia Hotel in Kilimani area of Nairobi.
The magistrate directed that the bond and cash bail of Sh600,000 deposited in court be released to each of the traders.
