•They said they are dissatisfied with the high court judgment and they intend to move to the court of appeal to challenge it.
•The case will be mentioned on May 5 for highlighting of submissions by the parties so that the court can make a determination on the issue of stay.
Busia Governor Sospeter Ojaamong on Tuesday asked the court to stay the graft proceedings to allow them to appeal the High Court decision that dismissed his case.
Ojaamong and his co-accused had moved to the High Court in 2020 seeking to declare their graft case a mistrial over claims that the prosecutor had threatened and intimidated their witnesses.
However, Justice Esther Maina dismissed the petition saying there was no evidence that the prosecutor had threatened the witnesses not to attend court as had been alleged.
They appeared before Chief Magistrate Douglas Ogoti on Tuesday for taking dates after the stay that had been issued by the court was lifted due to the petition being dismissed.
The defence then, told court that they had filed a new application before court, seeking for stay of the proceedings pending filing appeal at the Court of Appeal.
They said they are dissatisfied with the High Court judgment and they intend to challenge it.
Special Prosecutor Taib Ali Taib opposed the application for stay by the defence saying he had just been served with the application in court.
He further argued that since there was no stay orders any longer the court should proceed to give new dates saying the application should not be allowed to interfere with the hearing.
In a short ruling, Ogoti said since the prosecution had just been served, he will give parties time to serve the application and file submissions.
The magistrate said, from the judgement he read from the High Court, the judge gave orders that the file be returned to his court to take fresh dates and proceed with the hearing.
The case will be mentioned on May 5 for highlighting of submissions by the parties so that the court can make a determination on the issue of stay.
Ogoti then went ahead to take new dates when the defence case will be expected to proceed from where it stopped in 2020.
Ojaamong accuses the prosecution team, led by Taib, of witness coaching, evidence tampering and witness intimidation.
The county chief was in 2018 charged with abuse of office and other corruption related offences.
He is accused of unilaterally signing an MoU with Madam R Enterprises Ltd in a project for a solid waste management system without due regard to procedural framework governing the management of public finances and projects.
His alleged actions led to loss of Sh8 million.
Ojaamong is charged alongside Madam R and other county officials.
The prosecution called 20 witnesses and closed its case on February 20, 2020.
The governor and his co-accused were subsequently placed on their defence and they called several witnesses before the case was stayed.
Ojaamong gave an unsworn statement and informed the court that he would be calling his own witnesses.
(Edited by Francis Wadegu)