Shollei in fresh bid to stop trial in Sh310 million graft case

Former Judiciary registrar has lodged a fresh bid to have abuse of office charges, related to alleged irregular procurement of a palatial residence valued at Sh310 million for retired Chief Justice, dismissed.

Ms Gladys Boss Shollei will be objecting to her trial on the grounds that the charges against her “do not disclose an offence and renders it impossible to make a reasonable defence,” her lawyer Paul Ng’arua told a trial court on Monday.

“She is prejudiced as the charges are incomprehensible in law, they fail to address with certainty specific information as prescribed in the provisions of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act,” the lawyer said.

Ms Shollei has been charged with “improperly conferring a benefit to Johnson Muthama Holdings Limited from whom the Runda residence was bought.

She is also accused of wilfully failing to comply with the law on management of public funds as the Judiciary’s accounting officer at the time and engaging in the project without prior planning.

“The defence will demonstrate that the accused person requires more information to understand the mischief she is accused of,” Mr Ng’arua said.

The lawyer said that Ms Shollei’s rights to a fair trial would be undermined “if the prosecution is allowed to continue without sufficient details of the alleged offences being supplied.”

“The prosecution has failed to inform the accused person what provisions of the Public Procurement and Financial procedures were not complied with,” the lawyer said adding that without proper disclosure Ms Shollei will not be able to defend these charges.

Mr Ng’arua said that Ms Shollei will be ill at ease to proceed with the trial if the JSC resolutions approving purchase, budget estimates, approvals for the judiciary for 2012-2013 and the relevant regulations relied on in the charges are not supplied to the defence.

“The charges as framed do not meet disclosure obligations required under fair trail requirements and in order to meet this threshold, the charge should disclose with specificity sufficient information to enable the accused to know what the accusation is,” Mr Ng’arua said.

He said that the prosecution should inform Ms Shollei “what part of the planning law was infringed.”

“As set above the charges are embarrassing to the accused as she is not clear as to what aspect of the procurement planning law she breached,” the lawyer said.

Ms Shollei is charged alongside her former deputy Kakai Kissinger and five former members of the Judiciary’s tender committee who allegedly approved the transaction.

They denied engaging in a project without prior planning, failing to comply with the law on tendering and for going against the recommendation of the evaluation committee on accepting the lowest bid for the residence.

The trial court extended their Sh600,000 cash bails to January 17 when the case will be heard and a determination made on whether to shelve the trial.

A second case facing Ms Shollei involving graft allegations in the construction of law courts in Mavoko and Runyenjes was adjourned to November 14.