Former Treasury Principal Secretary Kamau Thugge can now breathe easy after the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) withdrew graft charges in dams scandal case.
Thugge will now be a key prosecution witness in the Arror and Kimwarer multi-billion corruption case and will testify against his former boss Henry Rotich.
The application to withdraw the charges against Thugge and former Wildlife PS Susan Koech was filed by Assistant DPP Alexander Muteti.
Anti-Corruption Chief magistrate Douglas Ogoti allowed the application and directed that Thugge and Koech’s cash bail be given back to them.
Read: CS Rotich, PS Thugge And 26 Others To Spend Night In Police Custody
The two had been arrested in July 2019 and charged alongside the former CS and over 20 other people for illegalities in the awarding of the Arror and Kimwarer dams tender to a broke Italian firm, CMC Di Ravenna.
“The investigations established that the government officials flouted all procurement rules and abused their oath of office to ensure the scheme went through. Many procurement procedures as stipulated by the law for such projects were ignored and the law was circumvented to ensure that CMC Di Ravenna got the contract,” said DPP Noordin Haji.
Read Also: CS Rotich, PS Thugge Finally Freed After Posting Bail
The two dams in question are all located in Elgeyo Marakwet County.
The suspects pleaded not guilty to more than 20 charges including abuse of office, improperly conferring a benefit, committing an offence of financial misconduct and failing to comply with rules and regulations relating to management of public finances.
In September 2019, President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered immediate cancellation of the Kimwarer Dam Project.
The President gave the directive after the multibillion project was found to be technically and financially not feasible by the project Technical Committee.
Read Also: President Kenyatta Orders Cancellation Of Kimwarer Dam Project
The President, however, directed the immediate commencement of the implementation of the Arror Multipurpose Dam project.
With the new design components and cost rationalization plan approved by the president, the Arror dam project will require about 250 acres of land and cost Ksh15.4 billion with power and Ksh13.1 billion without power.
The dam was previously estimated to cost Ksh28.3 billion.
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