Reprieve for Kimunya as county government seeks to drop case

Former Finance minister Amos Kimunya got a reprieve in his abuse of office case on Tuesday after the Nyandarua County Government resolved to withdraw a complaint against him for alleged irregular allocation of public land.

Magistrate Felix Kombo adjourned the hearing to give the parties time to come up with an agreement after he was told residents had filed a petition at the county assembly seeking to “withdraw the complaint”.

Mr Kimunya is charged with allocating public land in Nyandarua to a private company he is associated with.

He has pleaded not guilty.

The charge says on June 30, 2005, while he was minister of Lands and Housing, he abused his authority “by allocating public land to Midlands Limited despite the plot being unavailable for alienation”.

He is also charged with failing to disclose his vested interest in the transaction.

The anti-corruption court sitting in Nairobi on Tuesday heard that negotiations were underway for the county government to withdraw its complaint on the land hosting a potato processing factory stands.

Mr Kimunya’s lawyer Tom Macharia said: “Nyandarua County Government recognises the importance of Midlands as an industry with tremendous importance to the county for economic growth”.

He asked for and was given two months to report back to the court on the negotiations.

Mr Kimunya lost an earlier petition in the High Court seeking to quash the case.

However, the DPP has the final say as he has the sole powers to allow withdrawal of criminal charges.