The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has written to the Director of Public Prosecution Renson Ingonga asking him to appeal against the acquittal of Kapsaret MP Oscar Sudi of charges of forging his academic certificates.
Chief Magistrate Felix Kombo freed Sudi on June 7, saying he had no case to answer after faulting the prosecution of illegally obtaining evidence against him.
In a letter seen by the Insiderbits, the EACC says the magistrate blundered by failing to place Sudi on his defence, despite overwhelming evidence that he forged his academic certificates.
Kombo acquitted Sudi on all nine charges of forgery saying the evidence adduced in court was illegally obtained.
While freeing MP Sudi, the Magistrate faulted the investigating agencies over how they obtained part of the evidence.
The court found that there no evidence to support forgery charges since part of the evidence that formed part of the case was said to have been obtained in a city hotel and at Sudi’s former KICC office which the magistrate said raised issues of credibility.
Magistrate Kombo noted that when the investigators took evidence from Sudi from the Haron Court Hotel in Nairobi and KICC building no caution was given to him that he was recording a statement.The trial magistrate had faulted the investigators for illegally obtaining the evidence from Sudi after interrogating him at a hotel in Nairobi, instead of the EACC offices.
“In investigation practice, interrogation of a suspect at a venue of their choice is dubious,” the magistrate ruled. Kombo added that it was irregular for the investigator to carry out the interrogation at a hotel.“The evidence obtained, therefore, is suspicious and evokes credibility questions,” he said.
Sudi had been accused of forging a diploma certificate in business Management purporting it to be genuine issued by the Kenya Institute of Management
The MP was also accused of giving false information to an IEBC officer.
He is said to have presented the certificates to the commission to deceive them.
Sudi allegedly provided false information to Derrick Kaisha, an officer of EACC, at Haron Court Hotel, Nairobi County, in September 2015.
The legislator was also accused of making a false declaration under oath through a self-declaration form to IEBC at Barng’etuny Plaza in Eldoret on that date.
The charge sheet stated the accusations were contrary to Section 46(1)(d) as read with Section 46(2) in the Leadership and Integrity Act.
