Friday, June 4, 2021 – Former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko can now rest easy after the High Court temporarily suspended a Ksh10 million graft case against him.
The new developments come at a time when the standoff between President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is leading the war against corruption, and Judiciary has taken a dangerous turn after the president appointed 34 Judges and rejected 6, among them the judges who declared BBI as unconstitutional, null and void; a decision the Judiciary is not taking lying down.
In his ruling, High court Judge James Wakiaga noted that the suspension is upheld until June 23rd, 2021.
He stopped further prosecution of Sonko on the corruption case before Magistrate Douglas Ogoti pending a hearing on the Magistrate seeking to bar him from the case on the ground of bias against the former governor.
“l do hereby grant the petitioner (Sonko) temporary conservatory orders up to June 23, 2021.”
“The orders are in respect to Anti-Corruption case number 1 of 2020,” came Justice Wakiaga’s ruling.
This follows a move by the former County chief in March to the High Court’s Anti-Corruption Division amid claims that magistrate Ogoti was biased and wanted him stopped from handling his graft case.
He requested his case to be assigned to another magistrate for a fair trial adding that he stands to suffer irreparable damage should Ogoti continue with the hearing of the case against him.
The former County chief has been on and off the courts with the graft case pitching him allegedly having been committed between January 10 and 19, 2019 within the city, while he was the governor.
He was accused of having demanded a Ksh 10 million bribe from Web Tribe Ltd through ROG Security Limited as a bribe to facilitate their payments by the county government under his tenure.
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