Three Nairobi MCA's -David Njilithia Mberia (Lang'ata/Karen), Jared Okoth Okode (Mathare North) and Abraham Mwangi (Woodley/Kenyatta) on March 13, brought the Anti-Corruption Court in Milimani, Nairobi to a standstill.
The three were seeking a total dismissal of the case against them, arguing that that the evidence presented before the court was a translation of sheng - a language unknown in law.
Their defence lawyer, Titus Koceyo, argued that the prosecution could not provide evidence or a translator to prove that mita means Ksh1 million, and that soo tano means Ksh500.
The office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) urged the judge to use a recent decision by Justice John Onyiego, who ruled in corruption case where he formally recognized miti tatu as slang for a Ksh3,000 bribe.
According to the DPP, the three MCAs were accused of obtaining Ksh1 million from school proprietor Samuel Maina Kiragu, to positively influence a report by the Culture and Community Service Committee, chaired by the Lang'ata MCA.
The report was supposed to make a favourable report to the assembly to counter the initial allegation they had made to the county assembly that the private school in Eastleigh was set up illegally on public land.
The school is owned by a former Nairobi Councillor Josephat Kiragu Waichahi.
Kiragu Waichahi School, located in Eastleigh South Ward, has in the past been embroidered in a land ownership tussle with the area MCA.
Back on April 26, 2019, Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) detectives arrested Okoth and Mberia over Ksh500,000 bribery allegations, with the detectives revealing that their third accomplice, Mwangi had managed to evade capture.
In 2015, then Eastleigh South Ward MCA Nelson Masiga Marakalu was charged with incitement to violence, malicious damage to property and theft.
The MCA was accused of inciting residents to destroy Kiragu Waichahi School property on claims that it was built on a public land meant for a school.
Masiga was charged with destroying a part of a perimeter wall, gate, window glasses and equipment valued at Ksh3.3 million.
