Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Ruto launches defense in fraud case


BY CORRESPONDENT

facebook Facebook Twitter Email Print  
null

NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 23 – William Ruto has asked a Nairobi Court to acquit him in a Sh96 million fraud case.

Through lawyer Kioko Kilukumi, the Eldoret North MP argues the prosecution has failed to establish a case and urges the trial court to acquit him under section 210 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

In his written submissions filed in court on Tuesday the legislator contends that the prosecution’s case against him and seven others is a gross abuse of the court process.

The politician claims the criminal case against him and four companies associated with him were “activated by extreme malice and motivated by extraneous considerations''.

Mr Ruto says the decision to prosecute him alongside retired President Moi's aide Joshua Kulei and former Lands Commissioner Sammy Mwaita “was a tragic gamble with the liberty and reputation of the accused persons”.

He accuses the prosecution of instituting the case with the full knowledge and evidentiary material that none of the accused persons obtained any monies from the Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) as alleged.

Mr Ruto has been accused that on September 6, 20001 he fraudulently received Sh9.9 million from the then KPC Financial Manager Helen Njue saying he was in a position to sell 1.745 hectares of land which belonged to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources at Ngong Forest.

He is alleged to have further received Sh57.8 million for the sale of two parcels and another Sh28 million for a parcel of land in the same forest.

Berke Commercial Agencies, a company allegedly associated with the Eldoret North MP has been accused for falsely obtaining the monies from KPC in 2001.

Mr Kulei faces charges of obtaining Sh58 million from KPC between August 6 and September 6,2001 while Mr Mwaita has denied three counts of abuse of office for allegedly consenting the transfer of the parcels of land before they were degazetted.

The embattled MP argues that no evidence was produced to prove that in his personal capacity he made any false representations to Ms Njue or any other officer of KPC regarding LR nos 9824, 25525 and 9779 as to their situation, proprietorship or user.

Mr Ruto has urged trial magistrate Gilbert Mutembei to take into consideration that Ms Njue was not called to testify and no explanation was given yet she is alive and well.

“Only she can tell the court the persons who made representations to her and what actions she took pursuant to those representations,'' he adds.

He says the prosecution completely failed to adduce evidence that in his personal capacity obtained a single penny from KPC as purchase price for the land parcels or by any of the four firms.

Mr Ruto further claims that the charge sheet does not disclose at all the relationship between him and Berke Commercial Agencies, Priority Ltd, Celtic Multystystems Ltd and Somog Ltd which are some of the companies that they were charged together.

Accordingly, the legislator says that any acts allegedly committed by the four corporate bodies cannot be legally linked to him.

He claims that lawyer Francis K. Tuiyot who gave evidence retained the entire purchase price of over Sh272 million for the 32 parcels of land and did not make any disbursement to him or to any jointly accused corporate bodies.

The payments by KPC to vendors, he adds, were made three weeks before the dates when he is alleged in the charge sheet to have obtained Sh9.916, 835 and a further Sh28, 903, 738 for the same parcels of land.

Mr Mwaita who has denied four counts of abuse of office has also urged the court to acquit him saying the prosecution has failed to prove that he was an employee in the Ministry of Lands as Commissioner of Lands and contributed to the alleged crimes.

Through lawyer Ochieng Oduol, Mr Mwaita claims he was simply executing his predecessors’ directives.

State Counsel Vincent Wahoro will file his responses on Monday when the case will be mentioned.

Follow us at http://twitter.com/CapitalFM_kenya


Read more: http://capitalfm.co.ke/news/Kenyanews/Ruto-launches-defense-in-fraud-case-12148.html#ixzz1HQkhXQjf
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives

No comments:

Post a Comment