Githongo’s tapes on Anglo Leasing to be played in court

By John Muthoni

Nairobi, Kenya: Secret recordings that former Permanent Secretary John Githongo made from conversations with top officials will be replayed in court during the hearing of a defamation suit filed against him by former Cabinet Minister Chris Murungaru.

Lawyers Kioko Kilukumi and Andrew Wandabwa agreed to meet and select the audio tapes that will be used by former Governance and Ethics PS Githongo as his defence.

Kilukumi told High Court judge David Onyancha that the matter would not proceed as they had not agreed on the version of the audio tapes that the defendant sought to introduce before the court.

“My Lord, we have reached consent to take away the case from today’s and tomorrow’s hearing list as we could not agree on the version of the audio tapes the defence has. The failure arose from circumstances beyond the defendant’s counsel’s control,” he said.

The senior counsel said they needed an interpreter conversant in both Kikuyu and English as the records were in both languages. “We have agreed that the parties will meet in the plaintiff’s chambers on March 12 at 10am for the purpose of listening to the defence’s audio tapes and agree on the transcripts to be produced before the court,” said Kilukumi.

The parties agreed that the Deputy Registrar of the High Court would appoint an interpreter, who will be present whenever the parties are listening to Githongo’s evidence.

The battle between Githongo and Murungaru arose from the multi-million-shilling Anglo Leasing scandal.