Court gives back Garissa Governor’s passports held in Ksh233 million graft case
By Nancy Gitonga, May 5, 2021
The Anti-Corruption court has directed that two passports belonging to Garissa Governor Ali Korane be given back to him to enable him travel to Saudi Arabia for religious engagements.
Milimani Chief Magistrate Douglas Ogoti on Wednesday May 5 directed the release of the travel documents until May 17 since the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions did not oppose to the request.
“Since there is no objection by the prosecution, I direct that his (Governor Ali Korane’s) two passports be released to him immediately to allow him travel abroad as may be necessary but should deposit the same back to court on May 17,”ordered Ogoti.
Korane, through his lawyers Ahmednasir Abdullahi and Issa Mansur had urged the court to allow him to travel to Saudi Arabia for 10 days from May 5 for religious purposes during this time of Ramadhan.
His Kenyan and diplomatic passports had been deposited in court when he was granted bail by Ogoti on September 15,2020. But the Governor managed to convince the court to release them to facilitate his travel.
The magistrate also directed that two passports have to be deposited back in court before Korane’s ksh 233 million graft kicks off for hearing on May 17.
In the case, Korane is charged together with four county officials with eight counts of conspiracy to commit an economic crime, failure to comply with procurement law relating to management of public funds and misappropriation of public funds.
Korane and his co-accused persons; Ibrahim Malow Nur, Mohamed Ahmed Abdullahi, Abdi Shale and Ahmed Abdullahi Aden were charged that between February 25, 2019 and September 30, 2019 within Garissa County they mismanaged public funds allocated to the County Government of Garissa as a conditional grant for the Kenya Urban Support Programme (KUSP) amounting to Ksh233.506.000.
They all denied the charges.