Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji, on Wednesday, January 22, got a major win prosecuting the Anglo Leasing scandal suspects who include two former permanent secretaries after the High Court allowed him to bring in four more witnesses in the case.
In a story by People Daily, High Court Judge John Onyiego allowed the application from the DPP’s office to call the four witnesses, also allowing documentary evidence.
Among the key suspects are former PSs Joseph Magari (Ministry of Finance) and Dave Mwangi (Ministry of Provincial Administration).
The list of those accused also included former Head of Debt Management at Treasury David Onyonka, the late Rasmi Chamanlal and his sons- businessmen Deepak and Rashmi Kamani.
“Prosecution's application to call four additional witnesses and documentary evidence is allowed subject to such conditions that the trial court may attach regarding attendance of those witnesses and production of those documents in a timely manner without further judgement,” remarked the judge.
Justice Onyiego also ruled that the deputy registrar remit the original court files back to the trial court for proceedings to continue from Thursday, January 23.
The judge added that the court earlier misdirected itself by locking out witnesses whose evidence was already in the hands of the defence and which would assist the court to make a just decision.
“In this case, the defence was supplied with additional documents and a list of witnesses in advance, although the notice was short,'' added the judge.
In September 2019, the DPP, through his deputy Nicholas Mutuku, appealed against a ruling by a magistrate’s court to deny him an opportunity to introduce new evidence in the AngloLeasing case.
The deputy DPP argued that the decision would have adverse effects on all criminal cases of that kind, and would make it difficult to prove corruption cases.
The scandal reportedly started in 1997 when the Kenyan government wanted to replace its passport printing system, but came to light after a revelation by a government officer, in 2002.
Late Finance Minister David Mwiraria was also implicated in the scandal.
