A Nakuru Law court has released Jackson Mandago together with two other accused persons in the Finland and Canada Scholarship scandals on bail.
The Nakuru court has deferred plea-taking for the suspects following reports that a fourth suspect fled the country. The trio has been released on Ksh2 million bond or an alternative Ksh500,000 cash bail.
The judge has directed that the date for plea-taking will be set in 2 hours and instructed the prosecution to separate the matter so that the first accused who is still at large be charged separately.
"The fact that the ruling is yet to be taken should not be a bar to bail," Senior Principal Magistrate Alloys Ndege asserted.
Mandago and his co-accused are facing charges of defrauding parents of over a billion shillings that were collected on the promise of sponsoring students to study in Finland and Canada.
The lawyer of the first accused told the court that his client had not been summoned by the Director of Criminal Investigations but only learned about the arrests on social media.
DCI on Wednesday alleged that the suspect fled the country following the investigations, claims the lawyer refuted in court.
“Your Honour as an officer of this court, I have advised my client who is in Canada to come back to Kenya and face his accusers and to answer to the charges leveled against him,” the lawyer told the court.
He requested the court to defer the case of the first accused but proceed with the hearing of the other respondents, until his client can come back to the country.
Senior Principal Magistrate Alloys Ndege requested any aggrieved party to make an appeal on the ruling instead of getting into a battle of words in court.
President William Ruto told Uasin Gishu residents on Wednesday, August 16 that he would provide local scholarships for the victims of the scholarship scandal, once the court finalises the matter.
This happened when the President stopped to address eager locals before attending the 8th Devolution Conference 2023 taking place in Eldoret until Saturday, August 19.
