Lawyers, DPP clash in court as NHIF fraud suspects charged

Assistant Deputy DPP Emily Kamau speaks in court on December 10, 2018 when former employees of NHIF were charged over the loss of over Sh500 million. She caused an uproar from defence lawyers when she urged the court to treat the case as “worse than that of murder”. PHOTO | RICHARD MUNGUTI | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • She said the 22 suspects were the enablers of very serious crimes.
  • Ms Kamau added that many people “must have died for lack of facilitation by NHIF funds”.
  • Defence lawyers protested over Ms Kamau's statements, saying there is no evidence of any patient who died for lack of facilitation.

There was uproar and confrontation between State prosecutors and defence lawyers at the start of the trial of suspects charged with the loss of millions of shillings from the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF).

The confrontation was elicited by a statement by the State prosecutor that the case was “worse than that of murder”.

Assistant Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Emily Kamau asked Chief Magistrate Douglas Ogoti of the anti-corruption court to classify the NHIF fraud case “in the category of murder cases”.

'VERY SERIOUS CRIME'

Ms Kamau asked Mr Ogoti to treat the case with a lot of seriousness “since the accused were the enablers who facilitated the siphoning of public funds which might have led to many people to die”.

She said the 22 suspects were the enablers of very serious crimes.

“They are the ones who enabled siphoning of public funds. We are talking about more than half a billion [shillings] stolen from the management of the health scheme,” Ms Kamau said.

She added that many people “must have died for lack of facilitation by NHIF funds”.

LAWYERS REACT

At that juncture, defence lawyers Tom Ojienda, Cliff Ombeta, Danstan Omari, Annita Mesaki, Migos Ogamba, Katwa Kigen, Ham Langat and Felix Kiprono protested over the statements, saying there is no evidence of any patient who died for lack of facilitation.

“There is no charge sheet of a dead patient before this court. You have no evidence to support the claim. Just forget it,” Mr Ombeta said.

Ms Kamau then asked the court to protect her and urged the defence lawyers to “allow her to have her day in court”.

She maintained that stringent bail terms should be slapped on the accused due to the seriousness of the offence which also attracts a stiff penalty and a harsh fine upon conviction.

Prof Ojienda said were it not for Webtribe Limited which rendered services, NHIF would be on its knees now.

PULLED FROM HOSPITAL

While pressing for lenient bail terms, Prof Ojienda said some of the accused were “pulled from hospital beds” to be charged.

“Irene Jepng’etich Rono was removed from [her] hospital bed today, where she had been admitted, to be charged,” Mr Langat said.

He added that Ms Rono’s child, who is two-and-a-half-months-old, also has a medical condition.

Ms Rono was breastfeeding her child in court.

“I have filed an affidavit detailing my client’s medical condition,” Mr Langat told the magistrate while pointing at Ms Rono.

Mr Ogot showed compassion to her by asking her to sit outside the courtroom to attend to her child.

Prof Ojienda revealed that Mr Joseph Mutinda Mbuvi, a former finance manager, had been had been away for six months and when he resumed he was sent on terminal leave.