Magistrate in Sh 20,000 bribery case set free
A Kericho magistrate who was facing Sh 20,000 bribery charges alongside her court clerk has been acquitted by a Nakuru court.
Senior Principal Magistrate Liz Gicheha who freed the accused Ms Judith Achieng Nyagol on Friday, cited lack of sufficient evidence to link her to the corruption allegations.
“The court has established that there is no sufficient evidence to link Ms Nyagol to the charges leveled against her.Consequently she is hereby acquitted,” ruled Ms Gicheha.
However, her co-accused Mr Robert Cheruiyot will have to defend himself against the offence they were said to have committed on August 21 last year.
Ms Gicheha ruled that Mr Cheruiyot has a case to answer and directed him to appear before the same court on October 4 when his trial begins.
FRAMED
“The prosecution has provided sufficient evidence that indicates that Mr Cheruiyot has a case to answer,’said Ms Gicheha.
Ms Nyagol, through her lawyer Mr David Mongeri, had told told the Court that the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) detectives conspired with an accused person to frame her in the case.
The magistrate and her court clerk Mr Robert Cheruiyot had denied soliciting Sh20, 000 bribe from Mr Wilson Yegon, a trader accused of running a bar at the Brooke Trading Centre within Kericho town without a licence.
According to the prosecution, they took the bribe as an inducement for the magistrate to give a favourable ruling in the case against Mr Yegon.
The two were arrested in August last year by EACC detectives at the Kericho law courts. The anti-corruption officers claimed they had been tipped off.
WITNESSES
Mr Mongeri in his final submissions in court said his client had been framed and urged the court to dismiss the charges against her.
“The evidence is palpably missing even after the prosecution called 10 witnesses to testify, among them anti-corruption officers who arrested them,” Mr Mongeri argued.
Mr Mongeri also poked holes into evidence presented in court by the prosecution saying it lacked credibility.
He took issue with the manner in which a recording of a conversation between the court clerk and the complainant Mr Yegon was translated from Kipsigis language to English, arguing that it was tailored to frame the two accused persons.
A senior EACC officer, who testified earlier told the court that they recovered a Sh10,000 bribe from the magistrate’s handbag in her chambers.
