Perry Mansukh Patel, who is the main suspect in the case of Solai dam which killed 48 people, has changed his defence team as the court gets ready for pre-trial.
The owner of the dam hired renowned lawyer Fred Ngatia, who represented Uhuru Kenyatta in the 2013 and 2017 election petition. He will be taking over from Tom Ojienda.
The veteran lawyer will face off with Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji's team which has asked the court to postpone the case once again to give the prosecution more time to collect witness statements.
State Counsel Alexander Muteti told Naivasha Principal Magistrate Esther Kimilu that they required two more weeks to supply all the trial documents to the defence team.
He explained that the process was time-consuming because they were recording statements from more than 70 witnesses.
Ngatia raised no objection to the postponement of the pre-trial but asked that the suspect’s application to travel out of the country be heard on the same day.
The magistrate set the pre-trial date to October 29 when the prosecution will also be required to file their replying affidavit explaining why Mansukh should not be allowed to travel abroad.
The High Court in Naivasha dismissed an application by the DPP seeking to transfer the matter from Naivasha to Nairobi following alleged threats to witnesses.
High Court Judge Richard Mwongo explained that the application by the prosecutor had failed to raise enough grounds to warrant a transfer.
The businessman is facing 48 accounts of murder.
