Reprieve for former Nairobi County Governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko after an Anti-Corruption Court acquitted him of corruption charges relating to the loss of funds in tender procurement at City Hall.
In a ruling that was delivered by Chief Magistrate Douglas Ogoti on Wednesday, December 21, the court noted that the charges could not be proven beyond reasonable doubt.
“I find that the prosecution has failed to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt. The entire case against all accused persons collapses under section 210 Criminal Procedure Code (CPC); they are now all acquitted,” Ogoti noted.
Sonko and his co-accused person businessman Antony Ombok Jamal were charged with conspiracy to defraud the Nairobi county government of some Ksh20 million in 2019.
Further, the Director of Public Prosecution Noordin Haji accused Sonko of squandering Ksh357 million from City Hall.
However, Magistrate Ogoti confirmed that all the 13 graft charges filed by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) against Sonko and Jamal were defective.
Ogoti noted that ODPP had failed to adduce evidence to identify the companies that were allegedly involved in the graft.
Ogoti further noted that no money was stolen from Nairobi County as there was no evidence presented in court, to that effect.
Mike Sonko's defence lawyer Assa Nyakundi congratulated the magistrate for dispensing justice accordingly, noting that both Sonko and Jamal had no case to answer.
“The evidence tailored against him was heavily critisised by the defence and even the magistrate said that. Overall, the charges were incurable defective,” Nyakundi stated.
Speaking after the ruling, the former governor insinuated that the case was a political war to get him out of office.
“Someone wanted to control Nairobi and made up the charges to remove me from office but God has proven them wrong,” stated Sonko.
He further expressed his confidence that the rest of his charges will be dropped in the near future, stating that he had gone through a lot of pain due to the witch-hunt.
“I want to ask Kenyans to continue praying for me so that the remaining cases are dropped as well because you all know what we went through while in leadership,” Sonko added.
Nyakundi affirmed the ruling stating that “even if the evidence had been strong, those changes would have not stood in the court of law and the magistrate was right in declaring them incurably defective.”
Sonko was also facing more charges of money laundering, receiving bribes, and conflict of interest which contributed to his impeachment as governor of Nairobi County.
Few hours after the acquittal, the Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji on Wednesday, December 21, stated that he would appeal the ruling.
