Nick Mwendwa, who stepped down as Football Kenya Federation president to fight a corruption case against him in court, is now a free man.
The Sh38 million theft case filed against Mwendwa by the DPP Noordin Haji last July has been quashed. The quashing of his case clears the way for him to return to the top seat of the federation.
In the historic decision, the DPP has been barred from preferring any charges against Mwendwa or even summoning him to record any statements based on the recommendations of a probe committee that was appointed by former Sports CS Amina Mohammed last year to investigate expenditure of FKF funds.
Kiambu Senior Principal Magistrate Wilson Rading, who has since been transferred to Naivasha, set aside the fresh charges saying they were unlawful, unconstitutional, unfounded and an abuse of the court process.
Rading upheld submissions of the former president of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) Eric Mutua that the fresh charges filed against Mwendwa were premised on malice and therefore cannot stand the force of the law.
Mutua, who had teamed up with lawyers Charles Njenga and Victor Omwebu, had asked the magistrate to invoke the courts jurisdiction to put to an end the sea-saw decisions of arresting Mwendwa and freeing him at will then re-arresting him again with no cogent evidence.
Stopping Mwendwa’s trial Rading ruled :“This honourable court hereby issues orders to the effect that the charge sheet dated July 7,2022 and or any other charge sheet prepared and registered in this court by the DPP and or his prosecutor(s) against the accused person after July 6,2022 be and is hereby struck out for being defective,unlawful,unconstitutional and for being an abuse of the court process/criminal justice system.”
The magistrate directed FKF leadership to embark on developing football through promoting talented young Kenyans in the sport to rival international players like Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe.
The magistrate said the case was of great public interest since football is a beautiful game which can catapult many young Kenyans into fame.
