The Director of Public Prosecutions wants to amend Former Treasury CS Henry Rotich’s charge sheet in the Arror, Kimwarer dams case.
The DPP wants to consolidate Rotich’s file with that of David Kimosop into one file.
He has prepared a new charge sheet that Rotich and his co-accused are supposed to plead afresh to.
On Monday, the matter came up for hearing before Chief Magistrate Lawrence Mugambi but the court will deal with the issue of consolidation before the hearing.
The defence has objected to the consolidation of the two files saying they wanted to proceed with the hearing instead.
Lawyer Katwa Kigen told the court that they were served with the application on Thursday last week.
He said that since 2019 when the accused were charged, the charge sheet has been amended more than three times.
“This is the fifth time that we are taking plea afresh on 23 July 2019, October 31 2019 and May 11 2021,” Katwa said.
However, the prosecution dismissed his claims, saying it’s only three.
Katwa accused the DPP of abuse of power with how the matter was being handled
“The issue before you is a question of abuse of DPP powers to prosecute this matter,” Katwa said.
Katwa said the DPP should not go to court casually with the application of consolidation.
However, Special Prosecutor Taib Ali Taib said they were keen on expediting the matter before the court.
He said the issue of consolidation was brought up after some of the accused approached the DPP seeking review of their file.
“It was not the DPP who triggered the process, it was the accused who triggered and the DPP responded” Taib said.
Mugambi directed the defence to file responses in three days and the DPP to respond to them in three days.
The case will be mentioned on October 26 to confirm compliance.
