Court issues warrant of arrest against former Kisumu County Speaker Onyango Oloo in Sh4.1M fraud case
The Nairobi Anti- corruption court has issued a warrant of arrest against former Kisumu County Speaker Onyango Oloo after failing to appear in Sh4.1 million Lake Basin Development Authority mall fraud case.
This, after the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions(ODPP) amended charges against the initial 26 accused persons turning 14 of them into state witnesses in the case.
“Evidence against the 14 accused persons could not link them directly to the LBDA mall scandal thus opting to turn them into state witnesses,” stated the prosecution.
Oloo, Abok and MP Momanyi are charged alongside the mall’s board members, tender committee members, contractors among others.
The 11 accused persons present in court denied charges of conspiracy to defraud, willful failure to comply with procurement laws and unlawful acquisition of public property and abuse of office among others.
Speaker Oloo is accused of conspiring with the contractors to defraud the public billions of shillings.
Oloo and Abok are, in one of the charges, alleged to have unlawfully changed a title deed belonging to LBDA for Sh1.2billion in respect to the authority’s Lower Kanyakwar Phase 1 project without the approval of the National Treasury Cabinet Secretary.
Chief Magistrate Douglas Ogoti ordered for the reimbursement of cash bail paid by accused persons who have turned into state witnesses in his ruling.
Bobasi MP Innocent Momanyi, LBDA Managing Director Peter Abok and Edermann Properties Ltd directors Zhang Jing and John Zeyun Yang are also among individuals facing charged in the matter.
The state witnesses in the matter include; former Board members Michael Obora, Denis Sebastian Mulaa, and John Nyera Mango among others.
The case will be mentioned on May 3, 2021 for pre-trial.
