A Nairobi court on Tuesday allowed the withdrawal of corruption charges against former PS Lilian Mbogo-Omollo.
Anti-corruption chief magistrate Lucas Onyina marked the case against the former Youth and Gender PS as withdrawn, following an application by the prosecution.
The withdrawal of the charges against Ms Omollo comes on the back of the collapse of the multiple case against the former PS who was charged on May 29, 2018, over the alleged loss of funds at the National Youth Service (NYS).
Mr Onyina withdrew the matter under section 87(a) of the Criminal Procedure Code, as sought by senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Mercy Gateru.
The prosecution will proceed with the hearing of the cases against other accused persons.
Ms Omollo was charged with other senior government officials including former NYS director-general Richard Ndubai and traders who allegedly benefited from payments for goods and services never supplied to the agency.
She had denied charges of abuse of office, conspiracy to commit a felony and money laundering.
The prosecution had alleged that the former government officials conspired to commit an economic crime by allowing the payment of Sh167.5 million to three companies including Firstling Limited, Kunjiwa Enterprises, and Ameritrade Limited.
The offences were allegedly committed on diverse dates between April 6, 2016, and May 13, 2017.
“The prosecution humbly seeks that this court withdraws the charges against the first accused on the grounds that she requested the office of the DPP to review the charges against her,” she said.
The court was informed that after conducting the review of the decision to charge Ms Omollo, the prosecution deemed it fit to discontinue the charges against her.
The magistrate was informed that NYS had numerous pending bills, which dated back to the 2013-14 financial years. These bills, the court was informed, were incurred before Ms Omollo was appointed to the position.
Further, upon her appointment as the PS on December 18, 2015, Ms Omollo appointed a committee to verify payable bills.
It was further heard that none of the payments recommended by a verification committee she appointed were subject to ongoing prosecutions.
The ODPP had earlier applied to withdraw more charges against the former PS last month and senior principal magistrate Peter Ooko will rule on the application on July 17.
While urging Mr Ooko to allow the withdrawal of the charges against Ms Omollo, the prosecution said the payments were concluded before Ms Omollo was appointed to office.
“That it is in the interest of the administration of justice and the need to prevent and avoid abuse of court process that the instant Application should be allowed,” said senior principal prosecution counsel Vera Hamisi in the application.
