A magistrate who has had a number of altercations with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) over the bungling of corruption cases involving President William Ruto’s allies has been transferred from the Anti Corruption Court.
Sauce.co.ke has established that Senior Principal Magistrate Eunice Nyutu has been transferred from the Anti Corruption Law Courts in Milimani, Nairobi to Keroka Law Courts in Nyamira County.
She will now be determining disputes among locals. This is a huge downgrade from listening to multi billion corruption scandals involving well connected figures.
What is raising eyebrows about the timing of the transfer is that has on several occasions raised the alarm over what the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) terms as “prosecution-assisted acquittals.”
“Ms. Eunice Nyutu, Anti corruption Principal Magistrate in Nairobi is an amazing no nonsense magistrate who endless called out and rebuked the @ODPP_KE for what she called “prosecution assisted acquittal”. Apparently, her zeal and resolute stand against corrupt government employees had “embarrassed” CJ Martha Koome with certain quarters,” Senior Counsel Ahmednassir Abdullahi has said about Nyutu’s transfer.
“Koome transferred Ms. Nyutu to Keroka so that she stops her silly crusade against corruption and stop embarrassing the CJ,” said Ahmednassir who has had run ins with the CJ himself.
Among the high profile cases that have been before her court are the Kimwarer and Arror scandal involving former Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich, NYS scandal and corruption cases involving former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko and KRA chair Anthony Mwaura.
Nyutu was also the Magistrate in the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) scandal where former boss boss Richard Kerich and four others had been charged of conspiring to defraud the health insurer Ksh116 million.
In most of these cases, the magistrate accused the ODPP of obstructing the prosecution of high-profile cases through intimidation and sabotage.
The magistrate even suggested the establishment of an independent oversight body to regulate the prosecutions agency and prevent the abuse of power.
Several times last year, Nyutu declined a plea from the DPP to withdraw the multi-billion Arror and Kimwarer dams scandal case against the former Treasury CS, who was last week appointed as President Ruto’s Economic Advisor.
The DPP was angered by the move, as he had submitted multiple applications, including those in the lower high court, seeking to bar Nyutu from handling any case against Rotich.
Nyutu dismissed the DPP’s application requesting her to disqualify herself from the Rotich case, deeming it lacking merit and an abuse of the court process.
“It is my finding that the application for recusal was calculated to compel the court to grant an adjournment in the case and this amounts to abuse of the court process. The upshot is that the application for recusal does not meet the legal threshold and the same is dismissed in entirety,” Nyutu ruled.
Nyutu also found herself in conflict with the office of the DPP when, in August of last year, she rejected their plea to withdraw the NYS case involving Sh226.9 million, which implicated former Youth Affairs PS Lilian Omollo.
The case was eventually withdrawn by Senior Principal Magistrate Peter Ooko proceeded to acquit Lilian under section 87 of the criminal procedure code saying it is in the interest of justice and that of the public if the matter is stopped at this juncture.
“Going by the evidence adduce so far, the case against Omollo would end up with an acquittal if it is allowed to proceed to conclusion,” the Magistrate said.
Ms Nyutu’s final altercation with the DPP took place last week when she acquited former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko and KRA chair Anthony Mwaura from a Sh357 million graft case.
The DPP last year made an application to withdraw the case claiming that their prosecution “is not in the interest of administration of justice and public interest.”
The Magistrate declined prompting the case to go to its conclusion where the DPP failed to get a conviction.
The magistrate took issue with the prosecution for failing to conduct the case in a manner that promotes public interest.
“It’s tragic that a prosecutor can lose sight of a case. The prosecution only managed to call six witnesses before they bungled up their own case. The conduct by prosecution in this case reeks of neglect of duty,” said Nyutu.
She said the evidence tendered at close of the prosecution’s case was weak and could not be relied on to convict.
