Mwilu's lawyer wants his charges dropped

A lawyer who was accused alongside Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu of fraudulent dealings with a bank wants the charges against him dropped.

Stanley Muluvi is fighting charges of conspiring to irregularly obtain a loan of Sh60 million from Imperial Bank and tax evasion.

He argued that letting Justice Mwilu off the hook while leaving him to carry the cross of the charges initially levelled against them by the Director of Public Prosecutions is a violation of his rights to fair treatment.

According to Muluvi, he does not understand why a five-judge bench of the High Court decided to save Justice Mwilu by declaring that the evidence against her was obtained illegally while at the same time allowing his prosecution to proceed using the same evidence.

“The judges declined to make orders on the legality of my prosecution, but quashed the criminal charges against Justice Mwilu despite the fact that we were charged together. The prosecution cannot continue with the charges against me in the face of the declared illegalities,” swore Muluvi.

In the charge sheet filed in court by the DPP, Muluvi was accused jointly with Justice Mwilu of obtaining the execution of a security by false pretence where it was alleged they conspired to execute a discharge for two parcels of land being securities for a loan of Sh60 million.

They also faced three additional joint charges of forgery, with allegations that they forged Kenya Revenue Authority stamp duties worth Sh3.6 million.

High Court judges Hellen Omondi, Mumbi Ngugi, Francis Tuiyot, William Musyoka and Chacha Mwita on May 31 declared that the Director of Criminal Investigations had unlawfully obtained the evidence against the DCJ and stopped her prosecution.

The judges, however, declined to stop the charges against the lawyer, ruling that he did not file a substantive application to challenge the prosecution.

Muluvi submitted that it will be unfair to continue prosecuting him using evidence that has already been declared illegal, and that the charges cannot be sustained given that the transaction leading to the case was purely commercial and not criminal in nature.

“It has already been found that the DPP and the DCI illegally obtained evidence by raiding my office and seizing documents without a search warrant. They cannot be allowed to rely on that evidence to sustain the case against me,” he stated.

He added that the investigators gained access to confidential information relating to his clients which has compromised his right against self-incriminating evidence.

Above board

According to the lawyer, the transaction between him, Justice Mwilu and Imperial Bank were above board and that the bank never raised any complaint of being defrauded.

“An advocate only acts as an agent on behalf of the client when dealing with a bank. In this case, Justice Mwilu agreed with Imperial Bank on terms of the loan in which she was to sell some land to repay the loan. I cannot be prosecuted for my professional work,” he swore.

On the issue of fake stamp duties, Muluvi argued that there was no complaint from KRA, and that it was the DCI who coerced officers from KRA to fix him and the judge.

Muluvi wants his trial, which is scheduled to start tomorrow stopped pending determination of the suit.