Pressure from alert members of the public compels the State to revalue properties belonging to the KAMPYONGO’s
Today in Court, 24th November, 2022
Like in a Zee world movie where flip flopping is most common, yesterday the State Prosecution team left the magistrate shocked with their never ending twists and turns in the case of Former Minister of Home Affairs Mr. Stephen Kampyongo and Wife Mrs. Wanziya Kampyongo.
Details are that in its usual meandering the state yesterday made an application to substitute the indictment presented to the court last week. According to the Prosecution team the changes were being made because the “Public complained that the properties were overvalued” and to the amusement of the entire court the State emphasized that the over valuation of the properties was in public domain.
It should be noted that, upon the arrest of Mr Kampyongo and Wife a team of Journalist from various media institutions visited all the 9 properties which are being considered to be proceeds of crime and when televised the public made their own judgement on what they thought the values of the properties were.
Meanwhile, Magistrate Silvia Munyinya who granted the application for the substitution advised the State to get serious with what they are doing and conduct a final investigation than coming to court everytime with amendments.
However before granting the application the Magistrate returned the amended document to the prosecution to go through and ensure that what has been written is the final document as the Court will not entertain any more changes like this.
And during cross examination, a States Witness being a senior registrar at the Ministry of Lands could not state the amounts of the deed of exchange. But the defense counsel going property by property gave an account of how each property was acquired by both Mr Kampyongo and Mrs Kampyongo, the State Witness confirmed that most of the properties were acquired through transfer by assent and other modes and that Mr and Mrs Kampyongo merely paid Disbursement fees to the Ministry of Lands.
Upon the completion of examining the first witness, the state presented another witness from the Department of Valuation who testified on how the properties were valued. Before the judge the witness and state produced a report that was conducted to arrive at the values. However the Defense could not cross examine the witness and asked an adjournment to study the report.
The magistrate granted the defense application and cautioned the Prosecution against going to court unprepared as they did not avail a copy of the report to the defense to study.
She urged the state to make it standard practice to make copies of every evidence they wish to present in the court during this trial, she then granted the defense the adjournment and set 20th December, 2022 for continuation of trial.