Former Treasury CS Rotich and co-accused charged afresh in Sh63bn dams scandal

Former Treasury CS Rotich and co-accused charged afresh in Sh63bn dams scandal
Former Finance Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich (right) with his other accused persons from left to right David Kipchumba Kimosop,Jackson Njau Kinyanjui and Kennedy Nyakundi Nyachiro at a Milimani court on Monday,November 01,2021 when they were charged a fresh over Sh63 billion Kimwarer and Arror dam scandal.

NAIROBI, Kenya Nov 1 – Former Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich and his co-accused have been charged afresh in Sh63 billion Kimwarer and Arror dams scandal.

Rotich and his co-accused persons faced the charges afresh after the prosecution sought permission from trial magistrate Lawrence Mugambi to amend the charge sheet to reflect the new charges.

The Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji had directed the withdrawal of a case against former Principal Secretary Kamau Thuge so as ti become a prosecution witness.

Rotich and his accomplices were charged over abuse of office and misuse of funds meant for the construction of Kimwarer and Arror dams. They all deny the charges in the lucrative tenders that were issued to an Italian whose Directors are yet to be charged.

On May 26, Rotich was charged afresh as the prosecution removed the names of former Principal Secretaries Kamau Thugge and Susan Koech who had been charged with him.

The two will testify against Rotich during the hearing.

The DPP  also removed the names of 20 Italians who were still at large from the charge sheet and are meant to be charged separately.

The DPP said the evidence in the case remained the same and they will not be introducing new documents neither shall they be introducing new witnesses.

“Currently there are two active cases, we had indicated we have no intention whatsoever to consolidate the two as much as they may share some accused persons, majority of the accused persons are different in the two cases,” the prosecution said.

The former CS denied all the charges read out to him alongside all the others accused who had been charged alongside him.