A key suspect in a Sh994 million land fraud case on Tuesday failed to take plea in a matter where he was to be charged afresh alongside three others over alleged forgery of a title deed for land in Nairobi's Donholm Estate.
Patrobas Awino's lawyer, Emily Nyongesa, told the court that her client had contracted Covid -19 but this was the second court session he had missed since the court restarted the criminal proceedings.
The lawyer told Milimani Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi that Awino, who had travelled to attend to his sick wife, had contracted the virus and is recovering at home in isolation.
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"Your honour the accused is not in court, he is unwell. We have presented the medical documents in court. We have established that he has contracted Covid 19, thereby confirming his health status. We pray for another date when the accused will present himself," she said.
But Awino's co-accused, Alexander Hoops, Peter Gitau Muiruri and Peter Njoroge Kanik, were present in court.
Andayi deferred the plea-taking to allow Awino heal, with the case scheduled on April 6.
The four are accused of using fake land ownership documents to lay claim to and lead land occupation gangs that have been fronting as self-help groups, with the intention of applying political pressure to be allotted or to invade and occupy the land.
They allegedly have been using fake allocation letters/title documents that cannot be supported by any records at the Lands Registry.
Their illegal activities were investigated by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations leading to their arrest and arraignment in court in 2018.
The suspects were first charged in 2018 in separate suits, but the courts agreed with the prosecution and defence on the need to consolidate the cases as they were handling similar matters.
In the charge Sheet, DPP provided documents to show that they fraudulently prepared title documents in an attempt to illegally acquire the property belonging to Gidjoy Investments Ltd.
On October 7, 2020, Awino rushed to court to forestall his arrest and to stop his prosecution.
However, on November 30, 2020, Constitutional Court Judge James Makau threw out his petition for want of prosecution.
While dismissing it, Justice Makau noted that the last time Awino was in court was in June 2020. He added that he had noted that Awino, who was the petitioner, had failed to appear in court on several occasions.
Makau explained that on October 22, 2020, he expected the petitioners and their lawyers to file an affidavit to show cause as to why their application should not be dismissed which they did not.
In the new charge sheet, they are facing nine counts of making a false document, fraud and forgery. They are alleged to have committed the offense between 2001 to date.
