After a four-year gruelling courtroom session, former Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich was on Thursday beaming with gratitude.
The weight he had carried for so long has been lifted, and a wave of joy washed over him.
Despite the dark cloud that had surrounded him over the years, he had remained resolute in his innocence and tirelessly fought to clear his name.
Perhaps, as he appeared in court surrounded by his lawyers he did not know what the verdict would be until Magistrate Eunice Nyutu pronounced herself ruling that there was a lack of evidence in the Sh63 billion graft case.
"Wacha nipumzike kwanza (Let me rest first)," a visibly overjoyed Rotich told the press outside the court.
Who is Rotich and how did his woes start?
Born in 1969 at Kimwarer in Elgeyo Marakwet, Rotich is a holder of a Master's degree in Public Administration from the prestigious Harvard University.
He also holds a Master's degree in Economics and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics and Sociology from the University of Nairobi.
Until he was appointed the Cabinet Secretary in 2013, he was the head of Macroeconomics at the Treasury.
Here, he was credited with crafting key policy frameworks over the following years under the leadership of the then Finance Minister Robinson Njeru Githae.
As the CS, he sat at the Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and Telkom Kenya boards.
During his first term as Treasury CS, Rotich launched the first Treasury bond to be offered exclusively through the mobile phone in a bid to stimulate public participation in the capital market.
It was during that period that the country also managed to secure a $1.5 billion (Sh150 billion) loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2016, one of the biggest grants on the continent.
In 2019, the then Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji revealed that public funds had been lost in the Kimwarer and Arror dams project.
He proceeded to order that Rotich, Kamau Thugge (former Treasury principal secretary), and other senior government officials be arrested.
Haji stated that the senior government officials flouted procurement rules and committed illegalities in the tendering process.
When the case began, Haji put 24 individuals on trial but later dropped charges against 15 including Thugge.
The court dropped the charges after finding that the prosecution had failed to demonstrate charges associated with Rotich to specific breaches under procurement and public finance management laws.
A year ago, the suspects were charged afresh after the Anti-Corruption Court allowed the DPP to consolidate two files related to the two dams.
Rotich was removed from this position on January 14, 2020, and was replaced by Ukur Yatani.
