Migori County Assembly Speaker Boaz Okoth charged with handling stolen property

The seven; Philip Ochieng, Boniface Otieno, Peter Okinyi, John Allan, Vincent Otieno, Jackline Odira, and Clifford Ochieng, alongside the county speaker were charged with handling stolen property.

They are accused of breaking into the Chief Finance Officer’s office at Migori County Assembly between February 1 and 2 at around 3am where they took away documents and several computers which they transferred to the Speaker's office.

Appearing before Migori Chief Magistrate Dickson Onyango on Thursday, the eight denied the charges.

Chief Magistrate Onyango in his ruling ordered that they each be released on a Ksh.200,000 bond and one surety of a similar amount or alternative cash bail of Ksh.100,000.

The case is set for mention and hearing on February 17 and March 15 respectively.

Okoth and the co-accused were arrested by police on Wednesday morning at the county assembly premises.

They are said to have broken into the offices and taken away a bunch of files and several computers and transferred them to his office.

Migori County Police Commander Mark Wanjala said that they received a report at around 3 a.m. that the county assembly speaker and his accomplices had broken into the finance office and were transferring files to the speaker’s office.

Mr. Wanjala said the accused locked themselves in the speaker’s office when they saw police officers until Wednesday morning when they opened the office before being arrested.

The county police boss confirmed that they also recovered a bunch of files and several computers that were taken from the county assembly chief finance office.