Former Kipiriri MP Amos Kimunya granted Sh700,000 cash bail in land case

Former Kipipiri MP Amos Kimunya . [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

Former Kipipiri MP Amos Kimunya began the fight for his freedom after presenting himself to court to defend himself over charges of fraudulently transferring 25 acres of public land to his company.

Kimunya alongside former Director of Land Adjudication and Settlement Lilian Njenga and Junghane Wainana presented themselves before anti-corruption court chief magistrate Lawrence Mugambi following a High Court decision last week that reversed their acquittal and ordered a retrial.

Mr Mugambi released Kimunya on a cash bail of Sh700,000 while his co-accused were granted Sh1 million cash bail each. He also transferred the file to Principal Magistrate Peter Ooko to handle the retrial.

"The High Court had directed that the accused persons be sent back to this court for retrial and will now appear before Mr Ooko who will give directions on how to proceed," said Mugambi.

The ex-MP and his co-accused had asked the magistrate to send them back to chief magistrate Felix Kombo who had acquitted them but Mr Mugambi ruled that there was no merit to send them back to the magistrate who had already made up his mind and acquitted them.

Mr Mugambi also dismissed an application by the accused persons to give them more time to appeal the High Court decision, ruling that they can only stop the proceedings if there is an order from the Court of Appeal.

High Court Judge Esther Maina last week ordered Kimunya and his two co-accused to be put on their defence after reversing the magistrate's court decision to acquit them for lack of evidence in the illegal transfer of the 25-acre land public land to Midlands Limited where he is a director.

The land was valued at Sh60 million at the time of transfer in 2005 but is currently valued at more than Sh200 million.

Kimunya, Ms Njenga and Wainaina were charged in March 2014 with eight counts of abuse of office and fraudulent transfer of the land.

The prosecution alleged that Kimunya used his office when he was the Lands Minister in 2005 to irregularly transfer the land located in Nyandarua County to Midlands Limited while knowing that the land was public property and not available for disposal.

The former MP and Ms Njenga were further accused of fraudulently issuing a letter of offer and title deed to Midlands Limited while knowing that the land was being used as a farmers' training centre and therefore not available for allocation.

The two were also alleged to have failed to protect public property while Mr Wainana and the company faced a separate count of fraudulently acquiring the 25-acre land on February 6 2006 when the land was public property.

According to the prosecution, the land was part of 75 acres belonging to the Ministry of Agriculture and reserved for a potato seed project in Nyandarua County.

However after the prosecution closed its case, the anti-corruption chief magistrate ruled that there was no sufficient evidence to warrant a conviction and acquitted all the accused.

But the Director of Public Prosecution appealed against the acquittal arguing that the magistrate erred by failing to consider the totality of evidence that showed the three had committed the offence.

Lady Justice Maina agreed with the submissions, ruling that the prosecution had established a prima facie case against the accused and the magistrate was wrong to acquit them on account of insufficient evidence when they had a case to answer.

Mr Mugambi scheduled November 31 when the accused will begin their defence.