Lawyers turn heat on magistrate on manner he is handling NYS case

Lawyers have criticised the Judiciary over the manner in which it is handling suspects in the National Youth Service scandal.

The lawyers representing 46 suspects charged with conspiracy to defraud NYS of Sh468 million staged a protest against Chief Magistrate Douglas Ogoti yesterday and refused to take his directions to proceed with the pre-trial conference until their concerns over outside interference were addressed.

They accused Mr Ogoti (pictured) of having a closed-door meeting with Chief Justice David Maraga and senior prosecutors to determine the fate of the suspects, an allegation the magistrate denied.

According to some of the lawyers, the magistrate has already passed judgement against the accused persons even before the trial begins, and has denied them bail on frivolous grounds.

“We are not going to relax the way you want us to do when it is the accused persons’ rights being violated. You have played to the public gallery as proved by your own comments, which show the court is acting to satisfy some people in disregard of a fair trial,” said lawyer Migos Ogamba.

The lawyers' stand led Mr Ogoti to postpone the pre-trial conference as two of the accused persons moved to the High Court to challenge his decision to deny them bail.

Through lawyer Stephen Gachie, James Thuita and Yvonne Wanjiku, the directors of Firstling Supplies Ltd, accused the magistrate of relying on social media evidence to crucify them.

“The prosecution did not present any evidence to justify the denial only for the magistrate to resort to the court of public opinion on economic crimes as his reasons to deny bail,” said Mr Gachie.

Cliff Ombeta, another lawyer, told the magistrate they were aware of the 'pressure from above' and said they (lawyers) would not allow him to violate the accused persons' right to fair trial.

Mr Ombeta said they had information that the CJ met with magistrates and instructed them on the manner in which to proceed with the NYS cases.

Kiraithe Wandugi told the magistrate that the manner in which he had begun to handle the cases would lead to many suits in the High Court due to mistrial.

“We understand you have not been in Nairobi for long and might find the way trials are being conducted different. We are demanding that you respect the rights of the accused,” said Mr Wandugi.

Mr Ogoti had directed that the pre-trial begin yesterday but the lawyers managed to scuttle the process until they are supplied with all evidence the prosecution intends to rely on in the NYS case.