Former Sports CS Rashid Echesa was on Friday acquitted of charges of Kshs39 billions firearms fraud.
The fraud was allegedly committed at the Harambee house that houses DP William Ruto’s office.
According to the Senior Principal Magistrate Kenneth Cheriuyot, the prosecution failed to provide enough evidence to prove that Echesa and three others were guilty of the fraud charges.
The former CS was accused of defrauding two foreign nationals by promising to award them a multi-billion tender to supply firearms.
The magistrate ruled that the prosecution did not avail key witnesses including the two foreigners, Kozlowski Stanley Bruno, the CEO of US based ECO Advanced Technologies firm and Egyptian Mamdough Mostafa Lofty, who were the complainants in the matter.
He further disqualified the CCTV footage from the office of the deputy president that was presented in court by DCI as evidence.
“The footage did not show Echesa and his visitors committing any offence,” noted Cheruiyot.
He blamed the prosecution for allowing the foreign businessmen to leave the country without submitting their statements.
“I have considered the evidence tabled in court and found the first four accused persons with no case to answer and are hereby acquitted,” Cheriuyot ruled.
The court also noted that the evidence presented in court indicates that the DP was not aware of the visitors in his office.
The magistrate however found one of the accused persons, Chrispin Oduor Odipo, with a case to answer in three accounts for being in possession of instruments to commit forgery offences.
Ehesa, Odipo, Kennedy Mboya, Daniel Otieno Omondi alias General Juma and Clifford Okoth faced 15 counts of making a false document and conspiracy to commit a felony, obtaining money by false pretenses and personation.
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