Acquittal of Solai dam owner sad news for victims
They say lightning doesn’t strike the same tree twice but for residents of Solai, this old saying doesn’t hold water after Perry Mansukh, the owner of Solai dam which killed 48 people after bursting its walls, was acquitted by a Naivasha court yesterday.
The residents, who had hoped for justice suffered another loss when Mansukh was acquitted alongside eight others after prosecutors handling the case goofed many times and their actions, by design or default, dealt the case a fatal blow.
Naivasha Chief Magistrate Kennedy Bidali set the nine suspects free over what he termed as a lack of willingness and support from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions. But DPP Noordin Haji yesterday blamed the Judiciary for the acquittal.
“I am alarmed by the ruling. We were still in negotiations with some of the parties for plea bargaining agreement and the court knew this. The court did not act on public interest by acquitting the suspects on such a technicality,” Haji said yesterday in Mombasa.
Plea bargaining
The DPP said it was wrong for the Judiciary to base their argument for the acquittal of the suspects on the DPP’s failure to provide witnesses when they had applied for several adjournments in order to reach a consensus on plea bargaining with all the parties.
Haji claimed some people, who he did not name, in the Judiciary, the police and the National Government Administration Officers had been compromised in the case.
He said it was because of suspicion that some individuals had been compromised that his office had persistently asked the court to move the case from being heard in Naivasha to Nairobi without success.
“We have been struggling to have this case heard in Nairobi,” added Haji.
He disclosed that it was for the same reason that he had assigned prosecutors from Nairobi to handle the case in a bid to evade forces that, he said, were out to compromise everybody.
“Although we are going to appeal, we believe this is another suspicious ruling taken by the Judiciary just like the Babu Owino’s (Embakasi East MP) case,” Haji said.
The DPP questioned why the court had rushed to acquit the suspects before it could listen to several applications pending before it such as the one filed by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.
Tearful residents
And minutes after making the ruling, the suspects who included Mansukh, the farm’s owner and government officials who were charged with him walked out of the packed courtroom — smiling.
But as they were congratulating one another, victims of the 2008 dam tragedy in Nakuru county who included grannies who have been trooping to the court for the last two years — hoping that justice would be served — broke into tears as they pondered their next move.
The magistrate lay the blame squarely on the DDP’s office, noting that months since the case started little progress had been made, with adjournments being the order of the day.
“The court has on various occasions set aside 12 days for the case to be heard only for the prosecution to miss out without giving a proper explanation,” the magistrate said. 
In his 45-minute ruling, Bidali accused the prosecution of holding the court hostage by failing to appear on several occasions.
He said the accused deserved a fair trial which could not be given due to several adjournments by the prosecution.
“No court should be held to ransom by the office of the DPP and the accused have the right to fair and speedy trail but the prosecution has time and again proved it was not ready to handle this case,” he said.
The magistrate noted that 18 months since the case kicked off, the office of the DPP had failed to produce a single witness or witness statements.
Bidali said the DPP had last year indicated that it was seeking a plea bargain with the owner of the farm but no report had been filed in court over the issue.
Appeal ruling
Manusukh and eight others had been charged with 48 counts of manslaughter and for failing to prepare an environmental impact assessment report.
The others were Vinoj Jaya Kumar, Johnson Njuguna, Luka Kipyegen, Winnie Muthoni, Jacinta Were, Tomkin Odo Odhiambo, Williec Omondi and Lynette Cheruiyot.
Addressing the court on behalf of the defence team, advocate F.I Mburu said justice had been done after months of suffering for the accused persons.
“In the period the nine suspects have not missed court any single day and we are asking the court to discharge the sureties of the accused,” he said.
However, soon after the ruling, State Counsel Catherine Mwaniki said they would be heading to the High Court to challenge the ruling.
“There was a petition by the victims of the tragedy to be enjoined in the case and we were waiting for that before kicking off this case,” she said.
Outside the court, the victims, led by John Ngugi, who lost his wife in the tragedy, blamed the DPP for the unfortunate turn of events.
“We have continued to suffer while seeking justice and now the case we had hopes in has been thrown out,” he said.
Another victim, Veronica Wanjiku, said the ruling had caught them by surprise, adding that the only way forward for them was prayers.
Lawyer Benson Balongo, for the victims, said they would appeal the ruling in the High Court.
“We had sought to be enjoined in this case but the ruling by the magistrate did not address this, further complicating matters,” he said.
The May 9, 2018 tragedy left 48 people killed and hundreds others displaced by the raging waters.
A number of cases, including criminal, were filed in various courts against the owners, the National Environment Management Agency and officials from the Water Resource Management Authority.
Peter Mbae, the Kabazi ward representative, also filed a civil suit seeking orders for restoration of the degraded environment.
