Kidero wants Bench to hear suit opposing prosecution
Former Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero now wants a Bench of judges constituted to hear a petition challenging his prosecution over the irregular payment of Sh68 million to a law firm.
Kidero, through lawyer Nelson Havi, claims the petition raises substantial questions of the law and thus it should be forwarded to the Chief Justice for empanelment of an uneven number of judges.
“Unless this application is urgently fixed for hearing and determination, the hearing of the anti-corruption case will commence and same may be determined before the questions raised in the petitions are determined,” he said in court documents.
The ex-governor wants the Bench to determine whether advocate-client relationship can establish criminal liability against a person who is not a party to that relationship. He also wants the case heard till the end, saying he has no intention of entering into plea bargaining with the Director of Public Prosecutions.
“I can’t enter into negotiations over a crime that I have neither committed nor aware of,” he said.
Pay liabilities
Kidero further seeks a determination on whether evidence and information obtained without notice to the person under investigation or without a court order can be used to mount a criminal case against a person.
In the petition challenging the criminal case against him, Kidero argues that he was not in the city council of Nairobi when the facts that gave rise to the charges rose.
He says the genesis of the allegations arose in 2011 within the defunct City Council of Nairobi following a suit filed in court against the council by Kyavee Holdings.
Following the suit, the city council instructed the firm of Wachira Mburu and Company Advocates in the matter and commenced internal process of payment of legal fees to the said firm.
Kidero said the legal successor of the City Council of Nairobi, the Nairobi County Government was legally obliged to meet, fulfill or pay any outstanding liabilities of the council.
