The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Nordin Haji on Monday withdrew charges against eight accused persons in the National Youth Service (NYS) scandal citing lack of evidence.
According to the prosecution, the four of the lot will be State witnesses in the case on the loss of Sh231 million from the agency.
Charges against Clara Mbau, Christopher Malala, Josephat Njoroge, Rodgers Nzioka, Lucas Otieno, Sammy Michuki, Simon Kiiru, and Stephen Muchai were withdrawn under Section 87A of the Criminal Procedure Code.
This means that if the police find further evidence, they might be charged afresh. The withdrawn charges are in respect of four of the case’ six files.
The prosecution further consolidated the four files. The charges of 82 counts were read out to the accused persons afresh during the Monday.
The DPP, in his opening statement ahead of the the trial, said that he will prove that colossal amounts were paid as pending bills yet they did not fit the description of a pending bill as they were slotted into the NYS stock of pending bills.
Hg of NYS 2 corruption case involving former PS Lilian Omollo & 36 others starts today. Thro’ video clips, flip charts & infographics .@ODPP_KE to demonstrate how accused colluded & facilitated payment of sh 225M to fictitious entities#AntiCorruption_ODPP pic.twitter.com/1QfYV4qfBM
— ODPP_KE (@ODPP_KE) October 29, 2018
So far, some 51 suspects have been charged with the loss of the funds at the agency. All the suspects are out after signing a personal bond of Sh5 million, two sureties of Sh2 million and cash bail of Sh1 million, although some of them — especially junior civil servants–sought a review before the High Court and the amounts were reduced.
Three magistrates are trying the suspects, including former Youth and Gender PS Lillian Omollo, former NYS director- general Richard Ndubai and 28 other former government officials.
Ms Omollo had tried to stop the trial but High Court Judge John Onyiego dismissed the petition, saying she was properly charged.
Justice Onyiego said the institution of charges is a prerogative of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the DPP cannot be directed on who to charge or which case to prefer.
