The High Court in Kisumu has directed that suspended Lake Victoria Water Services Board Chief Executive Officer Moses Agumba be charged.
Eng Agumba had moved to the High Court to block his prosecution as well as stop the police and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission from investigating corruption allegations leveled against him.
In his submissions to court, Mr Agumba accused the magistrate court of acting against the law of natural justice by ordering his arrest for a non-disclosed offence and without considering the weight of allegations leveled against him.
But in his ruling on Wednesday, Judge Hilary Chemitei dismissed the application on grounds it was against guidelines in the criminal Procedure Code that allows a magistrate trying a case to permit prosecution be done by the public prosecutor or any person authorized to do so by law.
He said the magistrate exercised his discretion and allowed the interested party to carry out private prosecution and this court ought not to interfere with the magistrate’s discretion
The embattled chief executive was last year sacked by the board following an order issued by High Court Judge Esther Maina.
He is accused of a Sh50 milllion fraud that he is said to have orchestrated during his stint at the helm of the water body, according to one Mr Edgar Odhiambo from Siaya county who filed the case.
In the anti-corruption case, Mr Odhiambo accuses Mr Agumba of defrauding the water company the Sh50 million.
Mr Odhiambo had in July obtained orders from Principal Magistrate Thomas Obutu directing the EACC to arrest and prosecute Mr Agumba.
The Sh50 million in question was allegedly lost from a Sh15.5 million inflation of the payroll, Sh14 million grant from the African Development Bank that the board claimed did not receive as a grant as well as Sh20 million drawn from the bank’s special account that was never returned.
The chief executive is also on the spot over failure to update the organisation’s bank statements and project book accounts since September 2013.
In his ruling, Judge Chemitei however, said all was not lost as the applicant had every right to defend his cause before the trial court.
He said by allowing the application, the court would be technically sitting as an appellate court in a private prosecution case.