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High Court has today ordered the Nakuru West Member of Parliament Samuel Arama, who was acquitted over graft charges in 2019, be put on his defence.
The Anti-Corruption Court Magistrate Justice James Wakiaga said that they have set aside a lower court decision that had acquitted the lawmaker and two others of corruption charges in 2019.
This comes a year after the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) had appealed the ruling.
In November 2019, Arama was acquitted over graft charges in case he was accused of dispossessing a man of his land.
However, Milimani chief magistrate Douglas Ogoti freed the legislator and his co-accused Kennedy Begi Onkaba, saying the prosecution had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt the corruption charges against them.
“I hereby acquit the accused persons under Section 210 and order their cash bail earlier deposited in court to be refunded to them,” Ogoti ruled.
The MP had appeared in the Milimani court with co-accused in June 2018 where they denied seven counts of conspiracy to defraud.
They were said to have committed the offences between August 3 and 11, 2015.
The prosecution said the two conspired to defraud Ahmed Muhammad Nisar of his plot in Nakuru municipality.
The two are also said to have pretended they were carrying out a genuine land transfer of plot Nakuru Municipality block 6/95 within Nakuru county to Samuel Otara Arama.
In a separate count, Arama was charged with making a land sale agreement without lawful authority in respect of the Nakuru plot the property of Nisar, purporting it to have been signed by Yusuf Mustafa Ratemo.
Arama also faced a different charge where he allegedly uttered a land sale agreement to Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission investigators purporting to have been signed by Ratemo.
On August 7, 2015, Arama was accused of willfully procuring the issuance of a certificate of lease and registration of transfer of lease of the Nakuru plot to himself.
The offence is said to have taken place at the offices of the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development in Nakuru Town.
The case will be mentioned before chief magistrate Douglas Ogoti on June 15 for allocation of a new court to hear the defence.
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