Jirongo fails to stop Sh50m Post Bank fraud trial

Former presidential candidate Cyrus Jirongo has failed in his bid to quash a Sh50 million fraud case stemming from a loan he obtained from Post Bank 28 years ago.

Mr Jirongo, who was charged before a Nairobi court in August last year, had moved to the Supreme Court saying he had obtained documents from among others, the Registrar of Companies, that would absolve him of any wrongdoing.

The politician also alleged that the Court of Appeal, which gave the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) the green light to charge him with fraud, did not give him a fair hearing.

But six judges of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice David Maraga said that after being unsuccessful at the appellate court, Mr Jirongo was trying to make corrections to his case by seeking to introduce ‘supposed new and fresh evidence’.

“We are perturbed, as we are curious at this strange turn of events where the petitioner now wants to engage this court in gerrymandering and cat games in the name of adducing additional evidence in an otherwise straight forward appeal,” Justice Maraga, his deputy Philomena Mwilu, Smokin Wanjala, Njoki Ndung’u and Isaac Lenaola said.

Mr Jirongo is accused that with intent to defraud, he persuaded Post Bank Credit to accept a bank charge for a parcel of land registered under Soy Developers, which he used to obtain a Sh50 million overdraft for his company Cyber Projects International.

It is further alleged that he forged the signatures of his former business partners Sammy Kogo and Davy Koech and later presented them to the lender as genuine. He is said to have committed the offences on September 25, 1992.

He was also charged with giving false information to a police officer, claiming that he had paid Sh7 million to son of former President Moi, late Jonathan as balance to acquire Soy Developers.

In 2016, the DPP approved charges against Mr Jirongo but the politician moved to the High Court and obtained orders stopping the trial.

High Court judge George Odunga later quashed the charges after he argued that the case was brought with the aim of settling political scores.

But the DPP successfully appealed before Justices Alnashir Visram, Wanjiru Karanja and Otieno Odek.