Case against 41 Trans Nzoia MCAs, Speaker fails to kick off in Eldoret
What you need to know:
- This was after the prosecution led by Zachary Omwenga applied for another date to pave way for amendment of the charge sheet before the matter can proceed to full hearing.
- Dennis Magare, the lead counsel for the MCAs, concurred with Mr Omwenga’s sentiments but asked the court to come up with the hearing date that would be acceptable to all parties.
The hearing of a case in which 41 Trans Nzoia MCAs, Speaker David Sifuna and Assembly Clerk Ainea Indakwa are charged with abuse of office and misappropriation of Sh3 million failed to kick off in an Eldoret court on Thursday.
This was after the prosecution led by Zachary Omwenga applied for another date to pave way for amendment of the charge sheet before the matter can proceed to full hearing.
Mr Omwenga told the Chief Magistrate Margaret Wambani that he had detected some anomalies in the charge sheet of some accused MCAs which needed to be amended first.
“Your honour, I have noticed mistakes in some charge sheets which do not indicate how much money each of the MCAs misappropriated and I need time to amend them before I come up with a proper charge sheet,” argued Omwenga.
Dennis Magare, the lead counsel for the MCAs, concurred with Mr Omwenga’s sentiments but asked the court to come up with the hearing date that would be acceptable to all parties.
“I plead that we adjourn for some minutes to allow the counsel and prosecution sides to agree on a tentative hearing date to avoid more argument on the same,” said Mr Magare.
The magistrate called for a ten minute adjournment to allow the parties to reach an agreement.
After the break, the lead counsel told the magistrate that they had unanimously settled on August 23, as the date for the hearing of the case.
The MCAs were arrested last month by officers from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (Eacc) for allegedly using their office to improperly confer themselves with a Sh47, 000 each to travel to Nairobi on the pretext of receiving the body of Matumbei MCA Ronald Motongolo in September 2014.
The body had been transported a week earlier to his home in Kitale.
They are out on a bond of Sh150,000 each.
