The High court has quashed the acquittal of two
international businessmen Deepak Kamani and his brother Rashmi Kamani and three
former PSs in the Sh3.5 billion Anglo leasing scandal and ordered their
retrial.
Anti-Corruption High Court judge Benjamin Musyoki set aside
the acquittal of Joseph Magari, Dave Mwangi and David Onyonka who are all
former permanent secretaries.
The three had been charged alongside Deepak and Rashmi
Kamani together with their late father Rasmi Chamanlal.
However, a magistrate acquitted them but the DPP appealed
their acquittal.
Justice Musyoki said the DPP had established a prima facie
case against the accused.
It was established that the former permanent secretaries
authorised the project despite there being no budgetary allocation.
"I hereby set aside the acquital by the trial
magistrate of January 19, 2024 and order the accused persons to be put off
their defence on counts 2,3,4,6,7," Justice Musyoki ordered.
The judge found that the evidence adduced by 37 withesses in
the graft case shows that the security equipments that had been ordered for
were not delivered by Sound Day Limited as was alleged owned by the Kamani's.
He also observed that the user department was the National
Police Service and the then commissioner of police Edwin Nyasenda was not
called as a witness to prove that the security equipments tendered for were not
delivered.
While ordering the Kamani's to defend themselves, Justice
Musyoki said an explanation is expected from them to state why they received
the cash.
The judge said for them to have received the money through
an account Apex Finance Corporation they must have known that the monies were
proceeds of crime.
The Kamani's had claimed that they have nothing to do with
Apex Finance Corporation that was registered in Mauritius in January 8,1998.
They are said to have been single sourced by government for
the supply for security equipments at the Kenya police laboratory.
The judge ordered the five accused persons to appear before
Milimani Anti-corruption chief magistrate court to defend themselves since the
prosecution had established a prima facie case against them.
