A Milimani court has acquitted National Youth Service (NYS) scandal suspects. The Chief Magistrate, Wendy Micheni termed it as lack of enough evidence from the prosecution.
The suspects, former NYS director General Nelson Githinji, Ex PS Peter Mangiti and Businessman Ben Gethi have been freed from the Ksh 791 Million charges. The three had been out on bond.
The prosecution charged the three with 23 other suspects whom so far have been acquitted. Five of those have already been put on defense. This is to help the prosecution build their case further.
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In what was termed as NYS Season 1, the Magistrate said that had the prosecution presented electronic evidence, it could’ve been easier to determine that the suspects had direct involvement in the scandal.
In a statement by the judge, she said “No prima-facie case has been established against the suspects to warrant the court to put them on their defence. Having failed to establish a prima facie case against the accused persons, I hereby acquit them for lack of evidence”.
With more than 50 witnesses called by the prosecution and more than three judges who have handled the case so far, the court couldn’t find sufficient evidence for the case against three to stand.
The case was first brought to court in 2015 where the accused denied charges of conspiracy and theft of public money.
This according to the court is NYS season 1 and the accused have other charges pending in Milimani Law Courts. Therefore we will have other hearings that will make the NYS season 2.
We wait to see how NYS season 2 will turn out. Whether the prosecution is ready to produce sufficient evidence, or the season 2 cases will follow season 1 case out of the door.