The Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (ODPP) on Tuesday, May 16, dropped a Ksh500 million land fraud case against businessman Jimi Wanjigi for lack of evidence.
In the court application, a prosecutor from the ODPP told Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Bernard Ochoi that there was no sufficient evidence to sustain the charges against Wanjigi, his wife and three other co-accused persons.
The ODPP further told the court that Wanjigi and his co-accused persons were wrongfully prosecuted.
This was after ODPP reviewed the evidence and concluded that the former Presidential aspirant and his co-accused were best suited to appear as state witnesses.
Instead, the ODPP decided to charge 11 other suspects connected to the fraudulent case.
“It has been submitted that upon review of the evidence the DPP has decided to charge 11 other accused persons in a different file and drop the charges against the persons herein. I will therefore allow the application," ruled Senior Principal Magistrate Bernard Ochoi after considering the application.
Wanjigi, his wife and the two witnesses had earlier been charged with obtaining Ksh56 million by falsely pretending they were in a position to sell the company a 0.3314-hectare piece of land before the case was dropped.
Their prosecution was recommended by former DCI boss George Kinoti after concluding investigations to establish the real owners of the land.
The charges in the initial charge sheet were conspiracy to commit a felony, forgery of a title deed for a piece of land in Westlands and uttering a false document.
Wanjigi never answered the charges but moved to the high court and obtained orders stopping his prosecution.
Speaking shortly after the ruling, Wanjigi blamed the former regime for framing him to settle political scores.
“Some politicians were using the cases to frustrate me and my family but the court ruling has set the record straight, the truth has been unveiled by the court,” he stated.
Wanjigi and his co-accused were represented in court by their lawyer Willis Angira.
On January 19, 2022, Wanjigi had declined to take a plea in the case where he was accused of fraudulent land acquisition.
Through his lawyers led by Willis Otieno, Wanjigi, at the time, cited the High Court order stopping his arrest and prosecution by either the Inspector General of Police and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Otieno described the move to arrest and detain him as an abuse of the judicial process.
