A Nairobi court on Wednesday, May 20, acquitted Kipipiri MP Amos Kimunya of fraud-related charges including six counts of abuse of office and illegally allocating public land to a private entity.
Alongside two others, Kimunya had been battling the case in the courts for years, with accusations stemming from a controversial land transfer executed on June 30, 2005.
He was alleged to have allocated public land to Midlands Limited, a firm associated with him, during his stint as Lands Minister in former President Mwai Kibaki's administration.
Kimunya was charged alongside Lillian Njenga, a former Director of Land Adjudication and Junghae Wainaina, Board Chairman of Midlands Limited.
Magistrate Felix Kombo ruled that the prosecution had failed to provide evidence to justify the case brought against Kimunya and his co-accused.
A relieved Kimunya was pictured beaming outside the Milimani Law Courts soon after the ruling was delivered having long insisted that he was innocent.
The 25-acre land parcel allocated to Midlands Limited was worth an estimated Ksh60 million.
Kimunya had launched a number of attempts seeking to stop the case, particularly as the court case began affecting operations of Midlands Farm which deals in farm produce.
The issues became apparent when the Nyandarua County Assembly Committee on Agriculture probed the allocation of the land in October 2016.
At the time, Junghae Wainaina told the committee that operations of the company had ground almost to a halt due to the legal challenges.
On the land, a factory was supposed to, among other things, store potatoes, sell raw potatoes, mill food products and convert animal waste feeds.
The company was established in 2003 in the aftermath of the collapse of Naivasha-based Pan African Vegetable Mills.
