Former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko can now breathe with ease after the Anti-Corruption Court acquitted him of all corruption charges relating to the loss of funds in tender procurement at City Hall over three years ago.
In a ruling delivered by Anti-Corruption Chief Magistrate Douglas Ogoti on Wednesday, December 21, 2022, Sonko and his co-accused businessman Antony Ombok Jamal were freed for lack of evidence in the KES 20 million graft case.
“I find that the prosecution has failed to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. The entire case against all accused persons collapses under section 210 Criminal Procedure Code (CPC); they are now all acquitted,” Ogoti said.
The magistrate ruled that the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) failed to offer documentation identifying the companies that were supposed to have received the money while clearing Sonko and Jamal of all 13 graft offences.
Ogoti added that no money was taken from Nairobi County because no proof of the theft of monies from the county administration was offered in court.
The court also rejected arguments that the former governor had improperly approved the tender’s payment.
Sonko was accused of planning to conduct an act of corruption, namely abuse of power, by demanding Ksh20 million from ROG Security Limited and Jamal in order to enable payments to Web Tribe Limited by the Nairobi County government in January 2019.
The troubled former governor of Nairobi was charged with a second count of conflict of interest for knowingly acquiring an indirect private interest in a contract with a public body, specifically a contract for the provision, implementation, and upkeep of electronic revenue collection and payments issued by Nairobi County to Web Tribe.
Sonko and his co-accused person were also accused of money laundering, abuse of office, and obtaining proceeds of crime; however, the court cleared them of those allegations since the prosecution failed to establish their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt
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