On October 28, 2018, Dennis Chebitwey, former director of Government Adverstising Agency was dragged to court and charged with conspiracy to commit a felony and stealing Sh122 million.
The case would remain a millstone around his neck for the next six years.
The state also charged Chebitwey with abuse of office and fraudulently acquiring public property under the guise of paying for supply of advertising services.
He was charged alongside former Broadcasting PS Sammy Itemere, Kakamega Deputy Governor Ayub Savula, his wives Melody Ringera and Hellen Kemboi.
Seven companies that allegedly received the payments were also charged.
However, in February 2024, the government through the Director of Public Prosecutions withdrew charges against Itemere and 12 others namely Edith Nkanata, Amos Matanga, Gladys Bwora, Gladys Mwanyika, Jesca Ateka, Rachael Wanjiru, Nellie Kibocha, Sammy Makau, Martin Njoroge, Hannah Wangari, Edmundi Munene and Victor Owin.
The prosecution while making the request for the withdrawal of the charges told trial magistrate Lucas Onyina that a review of the charges against the 13 accused persons found insufficient evidence to sustain the charges.
Onyina granted the application noting that the prosecution bears the burden of proving the case beyond reasonable doubt.
It was his view that the DPP is mandated with either terminating or withdrawing a case at any level, provided the requisite procedure is followed.
"Since there is no objection from the defence over the same, the court being an impartial arbiter cannot refuse to grant the prayers as the bearer of the mandate to prosecute has been satisfied with the evidence presented to withdraw the charges," Onyina said.
And on July 1, it was the turn of Chebitwey and another 10 accused persons in the case to breath a sigh of relief after charges against them were also dropped.
The DPP had applied to have all the charges withdrawn and the accused persons set free arguing that the death of key witness Jeniffer Wambua in 2020 before being cross-examined had left the case standing on quick sand.
It was also the prosecution's argument that a High Court ruling in a civil matter had affected the substratum of the case.
"For the foregoing reasons, the prosecution is permitted to withdraw charges in counts numbers one and two, four, five, six, tenth and eleventh herein under section 87 of the Criminal Procedure Code and each of the mentioned accused persons is accordingly discharged," Onyina ruled.
Chebitwey faced counts one, two, four, tenth and eleventh which were all withdrawn.
When he gave his testimony in the case last year, former GAA director Ngare Gituku told the court he was not aware of any conspiracy hatched by the accused persons.
Gituku said there was immense pressure from advertisers and an audit was conducted to verify the genuine pending bills owed to various media houses.
According to the charge sheet, all the accused persons had fraudulently obtained Sh122,335,500 pretending that they were in a position to offer advertising services in magazines with a wide circulation in Kenya, a fact they knew to be false.
The offence was said to have happened on diverse dates between July 1, 2015 and August 30, 2018, at the State Department for Broadcasting in Nairobi.