- Judge James Wakiaga said it would not be in the best interest of justice to subject Ederman Property Limited and its directors to prosecution.
- The company claimed that their ongoing investigation in respect to the construction of the mall violated their rights.
Image: /FILE
The High Court has temporarily stopped the prosecution of a company and its directors charged in the Sh4.1 billion fraud at Lake Basin Development Authority Mall in Kisumu.
Anti-corruption Judge James Wakiaga said it would not be in the best interest of the administration of justice to subject Ederman Property Limited and its directors Zeyun Yanga and Zhang Jing to prosecution while they have raised issues alleging breach of their constitutional right.
“I find and hold that the petitioners have established grounds for the grant of the orders sought pending the hearing and determination of the petition. The petition must be heard and determined within the next 21 days from the date herein, failure of which the conservatory order granted shall stand discharged with no further orders of this court,” Wakiaga said.
Ederman and its directors moved to the High Court and sued the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, Director of Public Prosecutions, Inspector General of Police, Director of Criminal Investigations, Attorney General and Lake Basin Development Authority.
Through Lawyer Wlifred Lusi, the company claimed that ongoing investigations by the agencies in respect to the construction of the mall violated their rights.
In some counts, the directors face charges of corruptly giving benefits to several officers and board members of LBDA as an inducement to influence the decisions of the board and committee in respect of the contract.
The directors said that they are only being charged with the present charges, because they were demanding a debt which is lawfully due. The debt, they argued, was confirmed by independent state agencies, making their prosecution unconstitutional for being an abuse of the process.
They also placed before the court an opinion written by the Attorney General giving the contract a clean bill of health, which advice is disputed by the respondents.
“The issue at the end of the day would be as to whether the petitioners are being prosecuted as a result of their demand for the settlement of a sum which is lawfully due to them and whether the respondents are using the prosecution, so as to frustrate the petitioners from enforcing the contract or settling the dispute through the contractual avenue,” Wakiaga ruled.
Ederman and its directors were in 2019 charged alongside former Kisumu county assembly speaker Onyango Oloo, LBDA managing director Peter Abok and the firm's other directors.
Edited by Henry Makori