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Prosecutor jailed for failing to avail witnesses in Sh11m case


A prosecutor has been jailed for failing to avail witnesses in a case involving the theft of more than Sh11 million.

Mr Willy Momanyi was sent to prison for contempt of court by the Milimani Law Courts where a former CEO of the National Council of  Non Governmental Organizations Philip Okeyo Okeyo has been charged with stealing over Sh11 million.

Besides the one day jail term, the magistrate also ordered the state prosecutor to pay a fine of Sh25,000. If he fails to pay the fine Mr Momanyi will serve five more days. The magistrate noted the case has been pending before court for six years.

Okeyo and his co-accused Simeon Sagana Kanani and Lucas Chacha Matiko, are alleged to have stolen Sh11,793,453 the property of the National Counsel of Non-Governmental Organizations on diverse dates between September 12  2008 and June 26, 2009.

CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD

Okeyo has been separately charged with conspiracy to defraud the national counsel the millions by creating fictitious meetings held across the country within the same period. He has also been accused of false accounting.

While delivering the sentence on the prosecutor, Resident Magistrate, Tobiko Sinkiyian said the magistrate failed to explain satisfactorily why witnesses were not availed yet the case had been listed for trial this week.

Mr Momanyi declined to terminate the case saying “he had more witnesses to call besides the few who have testified in court.”

Other state prosecutors, led by Eddie Kadebe, moved swiftly to have the prosecutor freed by filing an urgent application before the High Courts criminal division to quash the sentence.