Former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko has been acquitted in a Ksh 357 million corruption case against him.
In a ruling on Wednesday, Milimani Magistrate Eunice Nyutu said there was inadequate evidence against Sonko and the 16 other co-accused.
Nyutu noted that the evidence presented before the court was insufficient to warrant a conviction of the 17 suspects.
“After carefully considering the testimony of six witnesses, the evidence adduced is inadequate to sustain the charges leveled against the accused persons,” Nyutu said.
The Milimani magistrate blamed the prosecution for bangling the graft case after only calling six witnesses out of the thirty-eight they had indicated would testify against the accused.
“The prosecution which called six witnesses did not tender evidence to warrant the court to put the accused on their defense,” Nyuttu ruled.
The Magistrate noted that to fix this flaw, Parliament should create rules that would hold prosecutors responsible for their actions and hold them liable for negligence in handling public matters.
In the case which has been in court for four years, Sonko and 16 others were accused of allegedly embezzling Sh357 million from the Nairobi County government through dubious contracts when he was still the county boss.
The embezzlement was alleged to have taken place between May 24, 2018, and March 28, 2019.
This is Sonko’s second acquittal in a multimillion-shilling graft case. In December 2022, an Anti-Corruption Court acquitted Sonko of a Ksh20 million graft charge, stating that the prosecution had failed to establish the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Sonko was barred from running for governor of Mombasa in the 2022 general election following his impeachment in connection with the graft cases.
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