Economy

Court allows use of missing receipts in NYS theft case

p ngirita

Phyllis Ngirita at the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The court Thursday agreed to the use of two missing payment vouchers and a bank statement in the National Youth Service (NYS) theft trial.

Chief magistrate Douglas Ogoti ruled that locking out the evidence would amount to miscarriage of justice.

The vouchers, which went missing during investigations, are among documents that prosecutors now want to use as evidence in the trial of 35 individuals as they seek to prove that Catherine Wanjiku Mwai, Lucy Ngirita, Anne Ngirita, Phyllis Ngirita and Jeremiah Ngirita received Sh918 million though they had not supplied anything to NYS.

The defence on Tuesday objected to the use of the vouchers, bank statements belonging to Ms Phyllis Ngirita, arguing they should have been included at the start of the trial or declared missing at the onset. “I adopt the above findings and also pronounce that locking out the documents intended to be relied upon by the prosecution at this stage before the same is presented to court and subjected to cross-examination is a miscarriage of justice,” Mr Ogoti said.

The Director of Public Prosecutions reckons the lost documents are crucial to its push for conviction of the 35 individuals.

The bank details Phyllis Ngirita’s transactions between August 13, 2016 and April 20, 2018, specimen signatures and two statements from KCB officials in Gilgil and Naivasha.