Judge issues summons in Sh370 million Anglo Leasing case

A judge has summoned applicants in an Anglo Leasing related case worth Sh370 million to appear before the court next week Tuesday.

This was after the Director of Public Prosecutions made a successful application that they be summoned after failing to appear in court twice.

Justice Luka Kimaru issued the summons in the case involving Kuresoi South MP Zakayo Cheruiyot for his role as Internal Security Permanent Secretary (PS) at the time of the scandal, and John Alao, who was the Chief Financing Officer in the ministry.

Cheruiyot and Alao are facing abuse of office charges before the magistrate’s court.

It is in this case that the former permanent secretary had obtained orders suspending the criminal case before the magistrate’s court for his constitutional application to be heard and determined at the High Court.

The High Court matter was referred to the then Chief Justice Evan Gicheru in 2010 to appoint a three-judge bench to hear and determine the constitutional questions that had been framed by the lower court.

Criminal proceedings

In the constitutional reference application before the High Court, the former PS wants to know if it would be right for the Attorney General to institute criminal proceedings against him, given the fact that the AG (then Amos Wako) terminated a private prosecution lodged against him over his legal opinion on the project.

The charge states that between June 1999 and August 2001 in abuse of their offices, they arbitrarily proceeded with procurement of the CID project while there were technical specifications for it in place.

The second count states they failed to ensure Anglo Leasing and Finance Ltd and Forensic Laboratories Ltd had the requisite legal capacity to enter into a contract with the Government.