EACC allowed to probe afresh former Transport CS Kamau

Former Transport Cabinet Secretary Michael Kamau in a Nairobi Court on April 22, 2016. PHOTO | PAUL WAWERU |

What you need to know:

  • Mr Kamau was aggrieved by a magistrate court’s order that he be discharged instead of being acquitted.

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has been allowed to begin fresh investigations into corruption accusations against former Transport Cabinet Secretary Michael Kamau.

On Wednesday, High Court Judge Hedwig Ongudi declined to allow his application to be acquitted, saying his appeal was allowed because EACC was not properly constituted at the time it completed the investigations and forwarded its report and recommendations to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

“It was not based on the manner the investigations were carried out or the innocence of Mr Kamau. That is why the Court of Appeal did not get into the substance of the investigations undertaken by the EACC,” the anti-corruption judge said.

EACC

Mr Kamau was initially charged with abuse of office and flouting tender regulations in a road contract.

He was aggrieved by a magistrate court’s order that he be discharged instead of being acquitted.

He wanted the High Court to direct that the case be permanently terminated, following a successful appeal last year, which found that EACC was not properly constituted when it made recommendations to the DPP that he and others should be prosecuted.

Justice Ongudi said Mr Kamau was challenging the way the magistrate’s court had interpreted the Court of Appeal’s verdict and the law, which related to whether the magistrate should have discharged or acquitted him.

KAMAU DISCHARGED
The judge, however, said it is not in dispute that the case against Mr Kamau had not been heard at the time he challenged it before the High Court and the Court of Appeal.

The case, therefore, is still pending before the trial court, she said.

Opposing Mr Kamau’s application, the DPP said the rider in the Appellate Court’s decision stated parties are at liberty to proceed as long as there is a properly constituted EACC and within the law.

The DPP argued that this meant the proceedings could be withdrawn and lodged afresh in future and the magistrate’s court was right in discharging rather than acquitting Mr Kamau.