Court directs case against three bank CEOs to be mentioned on Wednesday

The matter came up for mention after defence lawyers for Co-op Bank, KCB and NCBA banks informed the court that they had obtained conservatory orders barring the trial court from proceeding with the case and restraining the arrest or detention of some of the accused persons.

The lawyers said the orders had been served on the relevant parties, but State counsel told the court that the prosecution was yet to receive some of the orders cited by the defence.

Momanyi said the State had only received orders relating to KCB Bank and its CEO, Paul Russo, and asked the defence to serve the remaining orders to enable the prosecution to ascertain their authenticity.

The court was told that the High Court had issued orders staying proceedings against the second and third accused persons, prohibiting their arrest and stopping the trial court from taking plea pending determination of the High Court matter.

Similar orders were said to have been issued in respect of other accused persons, including orders staying further proceedings and the operation of summons issued by the trial court.

The trial court consequently directed that the matter be mentioned tomorrow to confirm service of the High Court orders and verify their contents before further directions are issued.

Last week, the three banks moved to court and obtained orders stopping the prosecution of the case before the Magistrate's Court. 

This is after the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) charged the CEOs, alongside a former MCA, over alleged failure to report suspicious transactions linked to proceeds of crime in alleged theft of Ksh.363.4 million.