Former Youth Principal Secretary (PS) Lilian Mbogo Omollo has lost her legal battle after the court ruled that her trial should continue contrary to her application.
Omollo moved to the High Court accusing the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) of lumping her 10 cases together with those of more than 40 accused persons, a move she claimed threatens to violate her rights.
Making the ruling, Justice John Onyiego indicated that the charges are a prerogative of the DPP who cannot be directed on who to charge or which case to prefer.
The Judge further noted that considering the nature of the charges and the colossal sums involved, it will not be in the interest of justice to withdraw some of the charges or hold them in abeyance.
Through her lawyer Stephen Ligunya, Omollo argued that the bundling raises the risk of delay in the event one of the accused persons absconds, falls sick or skips a court hearing.
In her application, Omollo further indicated that as the former PS, she was not directly involved in every transaction undertaken by the staff.
Accordingly, she wanted all the charges to be consolidated in one charge sheet because splitting them amounted to an assault on her fundamental rights.
In her view, splitting the charges was meant to embarrass, intimidate and cause her mental anguish.
Omollo has been charged with abuse of office, conspiracy to commit an economic crime, and failure to place checks leading to loss of money.
Her lawyer argued that there was a likelihood of one court acquitting her and another doing the opposite.
The prosecution, on its part, argued that the charges arose from different transactions and were committed by different entities or companies and could not, therefore, be lumped together.
