The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Noordin Haji, on Thursday withdrew charges of attempted murder against the directors of a company that imported fertiliser said to contain excess mercury.
The DPP also withdrew charges against a supervisor of Ballore Transport and Logistics Company, a clearing and forwarding firm, who was also facing charges together with former Kenya Bureau of Standards MD Charles Ongwae and other government officials.
And as the DPP made the deal with the four together with OCP (K) to drop the charges, the parties also agreed to release the 65,000 bags of fertiliser still being held at the company’s warehouse in Mombasa.
This is a big win for farmers as the company, a subsidiary of OCP S.A, a Moroccan company, prides itself for high yielding fertiliser.
The move ends months of filing a petition after another as the prosecution and the accused persons fought court battles.
The four whose charges were dropped include Mr Benson Oduor a supervisor with Ballore as well Malika Karama, Younes Addou, Mr Karim Lofti, all directors of OCP-K Ltd. The company had also been charged and its charges were dropped following the deal.
For others, however, the charges of attempted murder, abuse of office, commission of a felony and breach of trust will proceed.
They include Mr Ongwae, former director of quality control at Kebs Erick Kiptoo, Inspection manager at the Kilindini Port Peter Kinyanjui as well as Health Officer Erick Kariuki and Coast regional manager Pole Mwangemi.
In the plea agreement the accused persons undertook not to lay any claim for damages or any other relief as a result of the action taken by the government, in pursuit of or related to investigations and prosecution of the case in future either locally or internationally.
The parties also agreed to co-operate with the DPP “in the pursuit of justice”.
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