Court Drops Gachagua's Ksh7.3 Billion Case

The Anti-Corruption Court has dropped the Ksh7.3 billio corruption case against Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.

The ruling was delivered by Senior Principal Victor Wakumile on Thursday, November 10.

"There being no objection to the substantive application by the prosecution to have the matter withdrawn under section 87A of the Criminal Procedure Code, the application is hereby granted.

"The accused persons are hereby warned and informed that they may be re-arrested in the future and on the same or similar charges," he ruled.

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua addresses the congregation at Christ the King Cathedral, Bungoma, on Sunday, August 28, 2022.

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This is after the Office of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) applied to withdraw the corruption case citing insufficient evidence which crippled the investigations.

During court proceedings, the lead prosecutor Kuria Obadiah stated that withdrawing the charges gave room for the team to conduct further investigations and review the alleged corruption case.

The ODPP held the Directorate of Criminal Investigations responsible for the stalling of investigations. According to the lead prosecutor, the DCI team failed to avail the original files and exhibits used to arrest and charge Gachagua.

"In light of the request to review, the prosecution team sat and reviewed the evidence and realized that we were not able to respond to the letters without the evidence we had requested from the DCI at the time we were charging."

"DCI did not respond to our request, nor did they avail the original files and the exhibits required to enable us to study the file again," the ODPP stated.

The DP, through his lawyer Kioko Kilukumi, welcomed the decision by the ODPP to withdraw the charges against him- while maintaining the stance that the case was politically instigated by the previous regime.

He was subjected to intense humiliation driven at neck brake speed from Nyeri to DCI headquarters. He was never presented to court until July 26, 2021," Kilukumi stated.

The DP was accused alongside nine others of fraudulently obtaining Ksh7.4 billion through unscrupulous government operations.

Gachagua was charged with six counts that comprised acquiring proceeds of crime, conspiracy to commit corruption, conflict of interest, money laundering, and fraudulent acquisition of public property.