Ex-Devolution PS Mangiti’s bid to block prosecution fails

Former Devolution Principal Secretary Peter Mangiti on Tuesday suffered a blow after the High Court dismissed his application seeking to block prosecution over the NYS scandal.

Justice Hedwig Ong’udi dismissed the application, saying that it would not be proper for her to get to know and evaluate the evidence since that is beyond her jurisdiction in judicial review.

“It is only the trial court, upon hearing the witnesses,  that will determine whether there was any conspiracy and if so whether Mangiti was involved or not,” Justice Ong’udi ruled.

Further, the judge ruled that Mang’iti should have challenged the charges he is facing before the trial court, adding that there has been no demonstration by him to show that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) acted without jurisdiction.

In the application, Mangiti moved to the High Court seeking to stop his prosecution on grounds that the institution of the criminal proceedings was an illegality and based on irrationality, procedural impropriety and abuse of power.

The former PS argued that his role in the procurement process was limited to appointing of the Ministerial Tendering Committee and signing of the contract of the award of the tender.

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However, the respondents who included the DPP and EACC submitted that after receiving and independently analyzing the evidence for sufficiency to charge Mang’iti, they found it plausible to charge him.

“The applicant had not demonstrated how the decision to charge him had violated any of the provisions of the constitution or any other written law or rule of natural justice,” argued the DPP.

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