The state has lined up 45 witnesses to testify against Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua in the Sh7.4 billion graft case.
The hearing will commence in September next year with documentary evidence running to over 900 pages.
The matter had been listed for pre-trial conference but failed to start owing to the state's delay to furnish Gachagua and with the documentary evidence.
Defence lawyers in the case told anti-corruption magistrate Rose Makungu that they are yet to be furnished with the statement of the investigating officer handling the case.
“I went to collect the documents from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations but I had no inventory to countercheck. His statement remains unsupplied,” lawyer Wycliffe Nyabuto said.
The court heard that the inventory had just been supplied to one of the defence lawyers during Tuesday's proceedings and there is a possibility that the documentation in the inventory is not what is in the possession of the advocates. The parties asked the court for more time to allow them to countercheck the documents.
The magistrate adjourned the conference to February 24 next year to allow the parties to confirm whether the prosecution has disclosed and served the accused with the documentary evidence ahead of the trial date.
In the case, Gachagua faces six counts of economic crimes, including conspiracy to commit a corruption offence, money laundering, and fraudulent acquisition of public property.
The lawmaker is accused of fraudulently receiving Sh7 billion through three different bank accounts in his name at Rafiki Microfinance Bank. He received the property between 2013 and 2020 in Nairobi while knowing that it formed part of the proceeds of crimes.
On the charge of conspiracy to commit an offence of corruption, Gachagua is charged alongside William Wahome, Anne Ruo, Julianne Makaa, Samuel Ireri, Grace Wambui, Lawrence Kimaru, Irene Wambui, David Nyangi and M/S Rapid Medical Supplies Limited.
The 10 are accused of conspiring to defraud the Nyeri county government of Sh27 million between May 2015 and December 2016.
Edited EKibii
