The Office of Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) declared Wednesday it will appeal against the ruling of a magistrate court which acquitted all accused persons in the Sh20 million graft case against the former governor of Nairobi Mike Sonko.
The court acquitted them on the basis that the charge sheet was defective, and not on the merits and substance of the case.
The prosecution called a total of 19 witnesses and produced 113 documentary exhibits in support of its case and closed its case on July 27, 2022.
The former Governor of Nairobi was charged alongside others with the offence of conspiracy to commit an offence of Corruption, Conflict of Interest, Money Laundering and Acquisition of Proceeds of Crime.
In a ruling that was delivered by Chief Magistrate Douglas Ogoti on Wednesday, December 21, the court noted that the charges could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
“I find that the prosecution has failed to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. The entire case against all accused persons collapses under section 210 Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) they are now all acquitted,” Ogoti noted.
Sonko and his co-accused person businessman Antony Ombok Jamal were charged with conspiracy to defraud the Nairobi county government of some Sh20 million in 2019.
Ogoti noted that ODPP had failed to adduce evidence to identify the companies that were allegedly involved in the graft.
Ogoti further noted that no money was stolen from Nairobi County as there was no evidence presented in court, to that effect.
Sonko’s defence lawyer Assa Nyakundi congratulated the magistrate for dispensing justice accordingly, noting that both Sonko and Jamal had no case to answer.
“The evidence tailored against him was heavily criticised by the defence and even the magistrate said that. Overall, the charges were incurable defective,” Nyakundi said.
Sonko later insinuated that the case was a political war to get him out of office.
“Someone wanted to control Nairobi and made up the charges to remove me from office but God has proven them wrong,” stated Sonko.
He further expressed his confidence that the rest of his charges will be dropped in the near future, stating that he had gone through a lot of pain due to the witch-hunt.
