Editor's Review

  • The magistrate had to stop the court session after the suspect in a major graft case showed up half naked.

A magistrate had to stop a court session after a suspect appeared before court half-naked.

During the virtual hearing of the Ksh4.1billion Lake Basin corruption case, Fredrick Onyango appeared dressed in a white vest which is against court ethics.

Professor Tom Ojienda urged Chief Magistrate Douglas Ogoti to compel Onyango to dress properly a request the magistrate agreed with.

The Magistrate ordered the accused to log off and dress appropriately before the pre-trial continues.

Onyango was charged in 2019 after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji ordered his arrest over a Ksh4.1 billion tender for the construction of a multipurpose mall.

Haji said investigations by the EACC received a complaint of inflation of the cost from Ksh2.5 billion to Ksh4.1 billion.

Also arrested and prosecuted were 27 other officers from the Lake Basin Development Authority (LBDA) and two private firms accused of being involved in inflating the tender by Ksh1.6 billion.

DPP Haji said the LBDA irregularly approved additional scope of works in a meeting held on December 18 and 19, 2015, for an additional sum of Ksh620 million for the construction of a showroom, tyre centre and a three-star hotel.