KCB heist hearing pushed to July over prosecution's delays

A Thika court has adjourned the KCB Thika heist hearing to mid July over the prosecution's delays in availing required documents.

The case concerns the theft of Sh52,650,000, 95 Australian dollars, 185 Euros, 1,630 British pounds, 271,000 Tanzanian shillings, 947,000 Ugandan shillings, $5,781, 40 South African Rand and five Canadian dollars.

The robbery shocked the country as the thieves broke into the bank on November 27, 2017 using an underground tunnel.

EVIDENCE

The ruling on Wednesday followed an application by defence counsels, who said some of the evidence was presented to them in the morning, just a few hours to the hearing.

They told Chief Magistrate Julius Nang'ea that this denied them time to go through the documents.

Mr Nang'ea ordered the prosecution to avail all the documents to the defence teams by April 3 when the case will be mentioned. They include a soil analysis report sent to the Government Chemist.

The court set the new hearing dates as July 15, 17 and 18 due to the large number of witnesses expected to testify in the case.

THE SUSPECTS

The suspects in the theft case are Halford Munene Murakaru (32), his brother Charles Mwangi Murakaru (30), Julius Ndung'u and Shem Karani Karimi (26).

They are also charged with several counts of handling stolen property including more than Sh17 million, 200 identity cards, 200 Orange sim cards, 1,239 MTN sim cards, five Cyprus Telecommunication Authority cards (CYTA) and seven Central Processing Units (CPUs).

These items were later found in a residential house in Joyland estate, Juja.