Govt to appeal acquittal of former PS Thuita in Tokyo scam

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Keriako Tobiko has contested the acquittal of former Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Thuita Mwangi in a case involving the irregular purchase of embassy property in Tokyo, Japan.

The DPP says he will appeal the judgment. The former PS, in a personal statement, had described the case as a mere over-publicized castle of sand that quickly crumbled upon scrutiny.

The DPP says he was blocked from presenting six crucial witnesses to testify in the case and faults the judge for acquitting the accused despite acknowledging that there were procurement flaws.

Tobiko, further poked holes in the court ruling that cited failure to charge members of the tendering committee alongside the three main suspects. The DPP insists that the three were the originators and architects of the procurement process long before it was presented to the committee.

The former PS, on his part, described the case as having being doomed right from the start saying it was low on legal or evidential foundation and high on false allegations, innuendo, gossip, rumours and unsubstantiated presumptions.

The Tokyo scandal emerged in 2010 after a probe revealed that officials chose to buy the property from a private seller instead of the Japanese government, which had offered a lower price in 2013, the former PS, as well as Allan Mburu, formerly the Charge D’affaires at the Kenyan Embassy in Tokyo, and Anthony Mwaniki Muchiri were charged with breaching public trust by approving the purchase of property for the chancery of the Kenyan Embassy and Ambassador’s residence at a cost of 1.5 billion shillings while well aware that a fair market price could have been obtained had proper procurement procedures been adhered to.

A probe by the Parliamentary Investments Committee indicted Thuita Mwangi and the then Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula forcing the two to step aside to pave way for investigations. Both were reinstated 10 months later.