Why Sonko Wants Magistrate Ogoti To Recuse Himself From Graft Case

Former Governor Mike Sonko now wants the Anti-Corruption Chief Magistrate Douglas Ogoti to recuse himself from hearing and determine his Sh10 million corruption case. 

Sonko wants Ogoti to disqualify himself from the case arguing that the magistrate will not allow fairness and impartiality to prevail during the hearing and therefore they will not get justice.

“Ogoti has during the hearing of the case failed to allow good counsel, fairness and impartiality to prevail during the hearing and he should recuse himself from hearing and determining this matter,” says Sonko in his application dated January 29.

Testified in camera

The case against the former governor, Anthony Otieno Ombok alias Jamal, a director of ROG Security Limited, has been on-going before trial magistrate Ogoti where 10 witnesses have already testified in camera.

In the case before the court, Sonko is accused of demanding Sh10 million bribe from Web Tribe Ltd through ROG Security Limited as an inducement to facilitate payments by the county government.

Web Tribe Ltd had been contracted by the Nairobi City County Government six years ago to collect revenue.

The governor is said to have committed the offence between January 10 and 19, 2019 within the city.

According to Sonko, the magistrate has been expressing open bias while hearing the matter by directing that the case should be heard in closed court under the Witness Protection Act while he was well aware of the order of the High Court in Misc.

Criminal Application No. 1 of 2020 that only covered his two other cases number  ACC No 31 and 32 of 2019 and not this case.

He also accused the magistrate of misapplying the provisions of the Witness Protection Act, Cap 79 laws of Kenya in the proceedings and Failure to strictly adhere to Law of Evidence Act.