The fraud case against Senior Counsel Tom Ojienda has taken a new twist after his former law firm partner Peter Wanyama stated that he was not going to testify against the lawyer.
The lawyer, on Friday, came out strongly to deny being a prosecution witness terming an earlier statement by the DPP as a 'careful media strategy.'
"This is a careful media strategy by DPP. Odek has not recorded a statement. My statement responded to the charge I was to face (that we never did a legal audit). I can never testify against Prof Ojienda," he was quoted by the Star.
The DPP had earlier stated that Wanyama was going to be a prosecution witness in the Kshs89 Million Mumias Sugar fake legal fees case.
"ODPP wishes to confirm that Peter Wanyama, advocate, will be a prosecution witness after analyzing his statements and will testify in the case against Prof Tom Ojienda," the DPP disclosed on Thursday.
There were allegations that he had been arrested, claims Wanyama sought to clarify in a media statement.
"I clarified the issues the investigators wanted to know to their satisfaction and left DCI. I did so because as lawyers we too have a duty to assist investigators on matters that are lawfully seized of. We are not above the law," he explained.
The DPP echoed the statement adding that they had not arrested the lawyer.
“He was neither arrested alongside Prof Ojienda nor recommended for prosecution by DCI,” stated the DPP.
Wanyama was a former colleague of Ojienda before he resigned from the law firm co-ran by the two alongside Court of Appeal Judge James Otieno Odek in January 2012.
On December 31, 2018, the DPP lined Justice Odek as a witness in the case that has since been shelved till February 2019.
