The court has denied all the 43 suspects in the National Youth Service (NYS) scandal bail as earlier requested.
Making the verdict, Chief Magistrate Douglas Ogoti noted that the suspects are facing serious charges and will remain in remand until conclusion of trial.
Ogoti indicated that the suspects are linked to serious Economic Crimes and circulation of such huge amount of money can cause loss of financial health of a country.
[caption caption="NYS suspects in court"]
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Denying the suspects bail, the Chief Magistrate further indicated that plunder of public resources is equally a denial of fundamental rights to the rest of the country.
He noted that corruption denies the citizens the right to good health, food and at times leads to deaths of those deprived the essential services due to the looting of Public coffers.
The Magistrate termed the fact that the charges pose a great threat to peace as a compelling reason to deny the accused persons bail overriding the application by the defense lawyers including Cliff Ombeta who had argued that a bail is a constitutional right.
Counsels from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution had however argued that if released on bail, the accused persons are likely to interfere with investigations, evidence, and witnesses in the case.
The suspects in custody include Youth Affairs Principal Secretary (PS) Lillian Mbogo Omollo, National Youth Service (NYS) Director General Richard Ndubai and one Ann Ngirita who confessed to having fraudulently received Ksh60 million without supplying anything to NYS.
PS Mbogo was rushed to Kenyatta National Hospital on Wednesday after she allegedly collapsed at Lang'ata Women Prison where she was being remanded pending the hearing of the case.
[caption caption="PS Lillian Mbogo Omollo and NYS Director General Richard Ndubai"]
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The Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Noordin Haji has vowed to crack the whip on all those found culpable of participating in the NYS scandal.
