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FKF boss Nick Mwendwa’s fraud case ruling pushed to March 8


Embattled FKF President Nick Mwendwa will have to wait longer to know whether the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji will be allowed to prosecute him over the theft of football funds.

Kiambu senior principal magistrate Wilson Rading said the ruling was not ready since the file into the case had not been returned to him from the High Court where Mwendwa had filed an application to quash the fresh criminal case filed against him.

Mwendwa’s lawyers Eric Mutua, Charles Njenga and Victor Omwebu had appeared before Mr Rading on February 22, 2023 to receive the decision.

“The ruling is not ready. The file is yet to be returned from the high court to enable pen my decision,” Rading told the lawyers and the Kiambu County Prosecutor Everlyn Onunga.

The magistrate directed the parties to return to court March 8, 2023 when he will rule whether there is valid case against Mwendwa or not.

Defence lawyers Mutua, Njenga and Omwebu asked the magistrate to quash the fresh case against Mwendwa alleging he had been cleared from any blame from similar allegations by Milimani Anti-Corruption Court chief magistrate Eunice Nyuttu.

On July 6, 2022, Nyuttu discharged Mwendwa in the Sh38million graft case but the DPP filed a fresh case before the Kiambu Court arguing he has cogent evidence to sustain the new case.

The DPP through Ms Onunga presented a raft of evidence in support of the fresh case filed against Mwendwa.

Onunga told Rading there is enough evidence to support and prove the theft charges against the suspended football boss.

In the first theft charge Mwendwa is alleged to have stolen KSh2,500,000 on May 15, 2021 being the property of FKF when he was the president of the federation.

The second charge states, on March 4 ,2021 Mwendwa stole Sh5million the property of FKF when he served as its president.

The third indictment is that of stealing Sh1million on May 6, 2021 while the last count is of conspiring to defraud FKF Sh29,502,709 jointly with others not before the court.

Onunga told Rading that the decision to charge Mwendwa was “informed by the sufficiency of evidence or record and the public interest and not any other consideration.”

Onunga, appearing alongside Terry Kehoro, handed to the court and the defence lawyers 71 documents containing the fresh evidence in support of the four charges.

The documentary evidence includes bank transactions from Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), NCBA, NIC Bank including the approved budget for FKF for three years.

“FKF approved budgets for the years 2018, 2019 and 2020 was Sh797,259,232 Sh1,241,991,520 and Sh1,004,565,145 respectively,” the inspection report of the FKF committee appointed by former Sports CS Amina Mohamed shows.

Onunga urged Rading to dismiss in its entirety the application by Mwendwa seeking to block the DPP from prosecuting him saying the case has not met the threshold.

“The stay orders sought by Mwendwa are not tenable as he has not met the thresh-hold for such orders and the application is wrongly before the court,” prosecutor Thelma Nanjaya states in an affidavit in support of the DPP’s plea to dismiss the case by Mwendwa to prohibit his trial over the alleged theft.

Onunga told Rading that the Anti-Corruption High Court Judge Esther Maina declined to restrain the Kiambu trial.

“The DPP prays this matter proceeds for plea taking before the trial court which is well equipped to deal with the quality and sufficiency of evidence gathered in support of the charges preferred against Mwendwa,” Onunga said.

This plea taking ruling has been adjourned to March 8, 2023.

Mwendwa’s lawyers are urging the case be quashed claiming his trial blatantly violates his fundamental and constitutional rights.

The lawyers claim the DCI irregularly investigated FKF expenditure claiming police usurped the duties of the football regulatory body.

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