Court dismisses Oscar Sudi's plea seeking to stop forgery case

Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi has lost a bid to stop his prosecution over allegations of forging academic certificates.

Court of Appeal yesterday dismissed his application, noting that it had no powers to order a magistrate's court to stop hearing the criminal case.

According to Court of Appeal judges William Ouko, Wanjiru Karanja and Asike Makhandia, Mr Sudi does not appear to challenge the criminal case but was aggrieved about the constitutionality of the charges.

“The said criminal proceedings are not the subject of the appeal before this court. It is discernible from the notice of appeal dated August 10, 2017, as well as the draft memorandum of appeal annexed to the motion, that the subject of the appeal is the High Court’s judgment dated July 24, 2017, which dismissed the applicant’s constitutional petition. As such, we have no jurisdiction to stay the criminal proceedings in the chief magistrate’s court,” they ruled.

In the trial, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission said the criminal case is halfway heard, with seven out of 14 prosecution witnesses having already testified. This is the second time Sudi has failed to stop the criminal case.

In the High Court, Justice Hedwig Ong’udi ruled that the prosecution did not violate the rights of Sudi when he was charged with forging academic certificates while seeking clearance from the electoral commission to contest in the March 4, 2013 elections.