Migori County Governor Obado Okoth can now breath a sigh of relief after the court declared that the embattled governor acquired his guns legally.
The court on Thursday directed the detectives to hand back the guns which had been seized from the governor in 2018 after his house was raided by officers from the DCI.
The five guns were recovered in his Nairobi residence while three were found in Migori. The raid happened on November 2018 with the detectives spending hours rummaging through documents that they were seeking to help them in investigations into alleged misappropriation of Ksh 2 billion county money by the governor.
The operation was conducted by a team of 60 people from Kisii and Nairobi who were guarded by heavily armed personnel.
Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) George Kinoti had mentioned that the guns would be subject to ballistic examination at the Central Firearms Bureau (CFB).
Migori Governor Obado’s firearms case dropped after probe shows he legally acquired them; court orders guns be returned to him. pic.twitter.com/WTksuB0YJ8
— Chamgei Fm (@Chamgeifm1) July 18, 2019
The governor was later arrested for the same crime with the prosecution team Led by Ms. Catherine Mwaniki asking for 15 days in their prosecution case to allow them to run conclusive investigations in a bid to refer among other charges; possible firearms without valid certificates and possession of ammunition charges on the governor.
The prosecution had told the court that upon questioning, Obado did not give satisfactory reasons on how he was in possession of the firearms and ammunition in question which was contrary to the Firearms Acts.
Obado was later released on bond pending further investigations into the guns. It is, however, a big win for the embattled governor who has been in and out of the courts since 2018 following his alleged associations with the murder of Rongo university student Sharon Otieno whose body was found murdered and dumped in a forest.