Human rights groups sue State prosecutors for 'bungling' Ksh.63B Arror and Kimwarer dams case

Four human rights groups have filed a suit against the Director of Public Prosecutions and two State prosecutors over what they term as mishandling of the Ksh.63 billion Arror and Kimwarer dams case.

In the suit filed on Friday under the certificate of urgency, the petitioners accuse the DPP and prosecutors Geoffery Obiri and Oliver Mureithi of bungling the multi-billion case through “reckless dereliction of duty.”

In the suit, Transparency International is listed as the first petitioner, Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) as the second while Katiba Institute and the Africa Centre for Open Governance (AfriCOG) are the third and fourth petitioners respectively.

The four organizations are seeking accountability from the prosecutors after an anti-corruption court acquitted former Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich and eight co-defendants of fraud-related charges linked to the case last month.

The DPP is listed as the first respondent in the case, while Obiri and Mureithi are the second and third respectively, with the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) names as an interested party.

The societies cite prosecutorial misconduct in the case, arguing that despite the prosecution having 49 witnesses, Obiri and Mureithi only managed to present eight witnesses as earlier stated by the court.

“The counsel failed to call witnesses citing ‘firm instructions not to proceed with the matter.’ The court acquitted the nine accused persons but called for accountability of the prosecution counsel for the prosecutorial misconduct,” reads a section of the petition.

The human rights groups also want the court to lift the immunity of the prosecutorial counsel and to hold them personally liable if the accused persons claim damages for malicious prosecution.

The petition similarly seeks to bar the government from using public funds to compensate damages if Rotich and the acquitted co-accused persons win their case for wrongful prosecution.

They also want the court to fine the two prosecutors over what they term as “neglect of prosecutorial duty” to serve as a lesson.

During the December 14 ruling, Magistrate Eunice Nyutu acquitted the accused persons saying the prosecution had failed to lead the case and that there was no evidence tabled in court to show that the former CS and eight others failed to follow procurement laws in the Ksh.63B Arror and Kimwarer dams scandal.

The court also blamed the prosecution for only presenting 8 witnesses out of the 49 that it had initially intended to call.

"This would appear to be a prosecution-led acquittal," said Magistrate Nyutu.

"All the accused persons in this case are hereby acquitted due to lack of evidence as a result of the reckless dereliction of duty by the prosecution.”