Former Transport Cabinet Secretary (CS) Michael Kamau was offered a reprieve on Tuesday, May 9, after his Ksh33 million graft case was withdrawn.
The Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji applied for the withdrawal citing insufficient evidence to sustain the case.
Magistrate Victor Wakhumile formally granted the request, thus ending a 7-year tussle between the former CS, the Judicial system and Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).
The request was granted under Section 87a of the Criminal Procedure Code.
The section allows a public prosecutor to withdraw prosecution of any person at any time before judgment is delivered.
Kamau's case started in 2016 when he was accused of illegally tendering construction of the Kamukuywa-Kaptama-Kapsokwony-Sirisia road.
In 2018, EACC detectives investigating the case raided Kamau’s home at Windy Ridge Estate along Pepo Lane in Karen.
At that time, DPP Haji revealed that he consented to prosecute the former transport CS.
"We approved the charges and asked EACC to go ahead,” the DPP stated back then.
During the onset of the prosecution, Kamau sent an emotional appeal to former President Uhuru Kenyatta, pleading that he was under a witchhunt.
“I am clean. Tell him I am not a thief as claimed," he pleaded in 2015 after his arrest.
On December 23, 2022, President William Ruto offered the former cabinet secretary a lifeline by appointing him as the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) board chairperson.
