For the second time, the Solai dam case failed to kick off as planned after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) applied for more time to supply the defense team with witness statements.
Despite promising a Naivasha court earlier that the prosecution would be ready for the trail on Friday, it emerged that ten crucial witnesses were yet to record their statements.
This came as the main suspect and the owner of the Solai dam Perry Manusukh changed his defense team with renowned lawyer Fred Ngatia taking over from Tom Ojienda.
State Counsel Alexander Muteti told Naivasha Principal Magistrate Esther Kimilu that they required two more weeks to supply all the trial documents.
Muteti said that the prosecution would be calling over seventy witnesses adding that the process of recording the statements was tedious.
He told the court that two of the accused persons including Manusukuh and John Njuguna the director of water in Nakuru County had filed an application seeking to travel out of the country.
He said that the defense was yet to peruse the application and called for more time before filing a replying affidavit.
On his part, lawyer Ngatia who spoke on behalf of the defense team said that they were not opposed to the move to change the pretrial dates.
He applied to the court to have the issue of pretrial and that of the two who are seeking to travel out of the court mentioned on the same date.
The magistrate set the 29th of October as the date when the case will be mentioned and the travel application addressed.
In the case the suspects including Manusukh the owner of the dam are charged with 48 counts of manslaughter and failing to prepare an environmental impact assessment report.
The other eight suspects are Vinoj Jaya Kumar, Luka Kipyegen, Johnson Njuguna, Winnie Muthoni, Jacinta Were, Tomkin Odo Odhiambo, Williec Omondi and Lynette Cheruiyot.
Two weeks ago, the High Court seating in Naivasha dismissed an application by the DPP seeking to transfer the matter from Naivasha to Nairobi to alleged threats to witnesses.
High Court Judge Richard Mwongo noted that an application by the DPP had failed to raise enough grounds to warrant it transfer the matter.