Mr Nicodemus Mulako, the Busia County secretary, told anti-corruption court chief magistrate Douglas Ogoti: “I did not record the statement being shown to me by the prosecutor.”
Defence lawyers James Orengo and Dunstan Omari told the court in law the witness could not be allowed to testify about matters that are not within one's knowledge.
It emerged that a former county secretary recorded the statement.
The prosecution suffered a setback in the Sh8 million fraud against the Busia governor Sospeter Ojaamong after a key witness denounced a statement he allegedly signed.
Mr Nicodemus Mulako, the Busia County secretary, told anti-corruption court chief magistrate Douglas Ogoti: “I did not record the statement being shown to me by the prosecutor.”
He denied on Thursday ever recording the statement to implicate Mr Ojaamong and other senior ministers of Busia. As a consequence, the witness was stood down. He informed Mr Ogoti that the statement had been recorded by the time he joined the county government.
“I cannot testify on the strength of a statement which I did not record. By May 7, 2014, I had not joined the county,” Mr Mulako told the court.
Defence lawyers James Orengo and Dunstan Omari told the court in law the witness could not be allowed to testify about matters that are not within one's knowledge.
It emerged that a former county secretary recorded the statement.
The advocates argued that the prosecution had not provided the maker of the statement and therefore Mr Mulako is,” estopped (barred) in law from testifying on a document which is alien to him”.
Mr Orengo questioned the veracity of the statement and asked the prosecution to produce both its maker and the original as it strives to prove its case against the suspects.
The prosecution admitted that the statement it was showing Mr Mulako was not signed and they did not have the original handwritten statement by the author.
Mr Mulako had been summoned to testify against Mr Ojaamong who is charged alongside other five executive officers — county finance minister Bernard Yaite, chief finance officer Leonard Obimbira, head of treasury accounting Samuel Ombui, Allan Omachari and Edna Odhiambo.
The charges against them state that on diverse dates between March 15 and September 25,2014, they conspired to defraud the Busia County of Sh8 million through irregular engagement of a foreign company Madam R Enterprise to conduct a feasibility study on waste management, which had not been budgeted for.
Mr Ojaamong is separately charged that on or about April 7, 2014 while in Berlin, Germany, he signed a memorandum of understanding with Madam Enterprises for the study without a prior planning.
Hearing continues.
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