Nakuru court senior Principal Magistrate Peter Ndege threw out an application filed by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) seeking to have him recuse himself from the Ksh1 billion Finland Scholarships Scam case.
The magistrate is presiding over the case where Uasin Gishu Governor Jonathan Bii, outgoing Deputy Governor John Barorot, outgoing County Attorney Stephen Lel, and County Secretary Edwin Bett have been charged.
In his ruling on Wednesday, the magistrate defended his move to issue apprehension warrants against the four witnesses saying they had failed to honor court summons.
The ODPP filed an application for recusal claiming that the judge had shown bias when he issued the warrants.
Uasin Gishu Senator Jackson Mandago alongside other Finland Scholarship saga in court on August 17, 2023.
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Koech Bett
The court however lifted the warrants of arrest issued against the four who appeared in court on Wednesday.
“There’s no need for me to recuse myself. The witnesses involved herein have repeatedly failed to attend court, which has closed adjournment, despite the court allocating adequate opportunities and time at the expense of other issues to have this public interest matter with over 200 witnesses lined up,” stated the Magistrate.
The court had also issued a summons for two witnesses in the case, namely Mercy Tarus and Joel Koech. The prosecution has lined up over 200 witnesses with less than 20 having testified since the trial began on 1 July 2024.
In August 2023, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission(EACC) commenced investigations into the alleged embezzlement of Ksh.1.1 billion meant to fly out more than 125 students for higher education to Canada and Finland.
The funds, according to EACC, were collected from parents to facilitate Tertiary Education in Finland and Canada during the 2021-22 financial year.
EACC has established that the Uasin Gishu Education Trust Fund Account was opened in May 2021 and by December 2022, Ksh957,167,143 had been credited to the account by parents.
Parents who had contributed to the Scholarship program took Eldoret City to a standstill last year in August as they demanded a refund of their hard earned money.
Rodgers Kipruto (centre), a student who went to Finland through the Uasin Gishu airlift programme with his father, Jonathan Kosgey (left), and mother, Leah Kosgey (right), at JKIA in October 2022.
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Rodgers Kipruto
