Court dismisses Mwendwa bid to stop prosecution over alleged Sh38m theft

FILE PHOTO: FKF President Nick Mwendwa is led to a Milimani court on Tuesday,November 30,2021 where he was charged over corruption allegations in the federation.[Collins Kweyu,Standard]a

Former Football Kenya Federation president Nick Mwendwa (pictured) suffered another blow after the High Court declined to stop his prosecution over alleged Sh38 million theft.

Justice Esther Maina ruled that she had no jurisdiction to stop the criminal case pending before a magistrate court in Kiambu and that Mwendwa should have filed the case before the Kiambu court."The applicant is being accused of stealing and as such, the anti-corruption court lacks jurisdiction to stop his prosecution. The case is also pending before the court in Kiambu where he should have filed the suit," ruled Maina.

Justice Maina's decision lifted an earlier order she had issued stopping the prosecution which means the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) is now at liberty to continue with the charges against the former FKF boss.

Mwendwa was first charged in November last year with conspiracy to defraud Sh38 million following a decision by Sports CS Amina Mohammed to disband the federation. She appointed a caretaker committee.

Mwendwa denied the four counts in which he was alleged to have committed between March and May 2021.

The charges stated that he conspired to commit an offence of corruption where it was alleged he defrauded Football Kenya Federation Sh29,502,709 between April 16 2021 and May 31 2021. The other charges stated that on March 4 2021, Mwendwa fraudulently acquired Sh5 million which was public funds allocated to FKF and committed a similar offence on May 15 2021 when he allegedly acquired Sh2.5 million through fraud and another Sh1 million from FKF on May 6, 2021. The case was terminated in July when the DPP had failed to present witnesses.