Lawyers representing Sirisia MP John Waluke in his sentence hearing have urged the Court to be sympathetic while sentencing the lawmaker.
Dunstan Omari, one of the lawyers representing Waluke has pleaded with the Chief Magistrate to be lenient with the former KDF soldiers, saying that he is not only a vulnerable person because of coronavirus but that he also saved the late president Daniel arap Moi in the 1982 coup.
Waluke, his lawyer said, was a career civil servant who had an impressive track record in the military where he rose from a corporal to a major in 1996, a testimony that he is a good person.
After his military career, he engaged in consultancy and road construction services in Western Kenya. He holds a degree from Mount Kenya University and a Masters from Kibabii University.
Waluke is being represented by advocates Evans Ondieki, Samson Nyamberi, Cliff Ombeta and Dunstan Omari while his co-accused Grace Wakhungu has Duncan Okubasu in her corner.
Waluke’s lawyers begged the court not to be swayed by the Sh297 million but at the amount that was in his possession.
The Sirisia MP John Waluke was on Monday June 22, 2020 found guilty by a Nairobi court, and was remanded pending his sentencing on Thursday June 25, 2020.
Waluke has been so vocal in spreading DP Ruto’s 2022 political gospel. In January 2019, the High Court declined to stop the prosecution of Waluke.
Waluke was charged with several counts of fraud alongside businessman Grace Wakhungu over a contract his company, Erad Supplies and General Contracts Ltd, won to supply 40,000 tonnes of maize in 2004.
The lawmaker and his co-accused had last filed an application seeking to block the case against them.
High Court judge Hedwig O’ngudi, however, declined to issue the orders noting that the application had not been made in a timely manner.
Last week, magistrate’s court in Nairobi extended bond terms Waluke but issued an arrest warrant for his co-accused.
The trial magistrate Elizabeth Osoro issued the arrest warrant after Grace Sarapay Wakhungu failed to turn up for the judgment.
At the same time the magistrate allowed the investigating officer in the case to verify a medical document presented before court by Wakhungu’s lawyer after a State prosecutor disputed its authenticity.
