Former Nairobi Governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko has a case to answer in regard to the Ksh24 million graft case, the anti-corruption Court has ruled.
Principal Magistrate Charles Ondieki found on Friday, January 10, that the former governor has a case to answer in 11 counts of Ksh24 million graft charges relating to conflict of interest, abuse of office, and money laundering.
This comes after the then Milimani Chief Magistrate at the anti-corruption division, Douglas Ogoti, exonerated Sonko of the charges in 2022 on grounds that the charge sheet as presented by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) was faulty.
“In the end, I find that the learned trial magistrate (D.N. Ogoti, Chief Magistrate) in arriving at the impugned ruling fell into error. Thus appeal therefore succeeds and is hereby allowed, and sets aside the previous ruling,” the High Court Judge Nixon Sifuna ruled while he overturned Sonko’s acquittal in a previous ruling by Chief Magistrate Douglas Ogoti.
Former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko during a court session on Tuesday, February 9
The magistrate ruled that the charges were neither defective nor unlawful.
In his ruling, Ondieki placed Sonko and his co-accused businessman Antony Ombok Jamal on their defense, with the hearing scheduled for May 15, 2025.
Among the 11 charges, Sonko and his co-accused were accused of allegedly extorting Ksh10 million as an inducement to facilitate payments to a software development company by Nairobi County, thereby improperly granting a benefit to themselves.
The crime is said to have been committed in 2019 when he was the then governor of Nairobi County.
The DPP, being dissatisfied, appealed, and Justice Nixon Sifuna in December 2024 reinstated the case by saying Ogoti made a mistake in acquitting Sonko while relying on the original charge sheet instead of the amended one.
Sifuna subsequently set aside his acquittal and ordered the case be retried by a magistrate other than Ogoti.
In setting aside the acquittal on December 11, 2024, Justice Sifuna ordered that the trial court deliver a new ruling based on the law within 30 days.
Magistrate Ondieki has revealed that when the defense hearing commences, adjournments will not be allowed.
The former governor is yet to respond to the ruling.
Former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko (in white T-shirt) following court proceedings on February 7, 2023.
Kenyans.co.ke