Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Kirubi and co-accused acquitted



Businessman Chris Kirubi and 13 others have been acquitted of criminal charges by a Nairobi court.
Nairobi Chief Magistrate Gilbert Mutembei acquitted them without putting them on their defense.
The 13 have been on trial for the past three years accused of conspiring to defraud the Uchumi Supermarkets of Sh147 million between March 27, 2003 and November 20, 2004. The State claimed that they sold Uchumi’s building on Aga Khan Walk, Nairobi, then rented it to Allgate Company for Sh1.7 million monthly.
The magistrate ruled that they had no case to answer, as the prosecution had not adduced evidence worth putting them on their defense. The state called 15 witnesses most of them former Uchumi employees.
Speaking to the press later Kirubi described the trial as politically motivated saying it was intended to have him and the co-accused imprisoned.
Mutembei said it was the duty of the prosecution to prove a case to have the accused put on their defense.
"What came out of the evidence was that Uchumi was not a parastatal hence the accused persons could not be said to have been public officers," he concluded.
He said the Prosecution should have withdrawn the matter after calling the first two witnesses and realizing that they were heading nowhere.

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