Rotich to take fresh plea in Arror, Kimwarer graft case on May 26
The corruption case facing former Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich will now proceed separately from the one of 18 former officials of an Italian firm.
The new development emerged yesterday before Milimani Anti-Corruption Chief Magistrate Douglas Ogoti after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), through Senior State Counsel Ali Taib, informed the court that the directors of the Italian construction firm CMC di Ravenna now have a separate charge sheet and separate file from Rotich, former Kerio Valley Development Authority (KVDA) Managing Director David Kimosop and 23 others.
Ogoti directed Rotich and six others to appear in court on May 26 to answer to the new charges.
The decision, Taib stated, was aimed at enabling Rotich’s case to proceed uninterrupted.
“For the purpose of allowing this case to proceed to full hearing, we have taken steps to separate the charges against all those accused persons who reside outside the jurisdictions of this court and have not submitted themselves since the case was filed in court. We are in the process of uploading the new charge sheet to the website for access by all defense counsels,” said Taib.
He also said that in the new charges filed in court, they had officially removed the names of former Treasury Principal Secretary Kamau Thugge and former Wildlife Principal Secretary Susan Koech whose charges have also been dropped after they became State witnesses in the case.
On the run
The court heard that the DPP had filed three new charge sheets against all the accused and sought to have them take plea afresh following the amended charges.
In the new charges filed in court, Rotich (pictured) and his co-accused face two cases while the 18 Italians and the company who have since been on the run are in a different charge sheet.
The case has stalled since July 2019 because the State was unable to arrest the directors of Italian firm CMC de Ravenna which was awarded the contract worth over Sh63 billion for the construction of the two dams projects in Kimwarer and Arror, Elgeyo Marakwet County.
