- Kombo said Sudi’s legal team should demonstrate with concrete evidence that the accused is incapable of personal attendance.
- Kombo said he will only allow the adjournment so that the defence will on Wednesday, demonstrate why the matter should not proceed.
Image: FILE
Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi has been directed to furnish the court with concrete evidence that he is in Turkey for medical treatment.
Anti-corruption magistrate Felix Kombo issued the directive after Sudi failed to appear in court for the hearing of a case where he has been accused of forging his academic certificates.
Kombo said Sudi’s legal team should demonstrate with concrete evidence that the accused is incapable of personal attendance.
The last time the matter was in court, Sudi claimed he was indisposed causing the court to adjourn the case.
On Tuesday, his lawyers led by Thomas Ruto and George Wajackoyah sought another adjournment for the same reason, sickness.
But Kombo said there is no satisfactory material to confirm Sudi is unwell and out of the country for treatment.
"He said he is in Turkey but he has no papers to show it and no evidence to show that he is out of the jurisdiction and sick,” Kombo said.
The judge said the last time witnesses testified was in October last year and since then the case has been plagued by adjournments from the defence side.
There have been three adjournments in the case since October last year. One was occasioned by the prosecution and two by Sudi on the grounds of illness.
Kombo said he will only allow the adjournment so that the defence will on Wednesday demonstrate why the matter should not proceed.
“I will not be accounting to Chief Justice Martha Koome why this matter is stalling. We have been proceeding since 2016 with only three witnesses remaining, the defence filed a document a day to the hearing claiming their client is sick," the magistrate said.
The last time the matter was in court, former head of examinations at Kenya Institute of Management John Mateshe testified that the diploma certificate in Business Management held by Sudi was forged.
Mateshe, in his testimony, said their records prove that Sudi never registered as a student at the institute.
Sudi has been charged with forging a diploma certificate in Business Management.
He is also accused of forging his KCSE certificate saying it was issued by the Kenya National Examination Council.
Mateshe was the tenth prosecution witness.
The witness told the court that the copy of certificate presented to the institution by the anti-graft body was not genuine and was never issued by KIM.
An official with Knec has also testified in the case, saying Sudi did not sit for the 2006 KCSE examination as earlier alleged.
The principal examinations secretary Nabiki Ene Kashu told Magistrate Kombo that Sudi did not register nor sit for the 2006 KCSE examination at Highway Secondary School.
(Edited by Tabnacha O)