The Employment and Labour Relations Court on Friday ordered Mwangi wa Iria's Personal Assistant, Peter Muturi Karanja, to appear before the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) on Monday next week.

In the ruling, Justice Nixon Sifuna directed Karanja to pay a Kes 300,000 cash bail, failure to which his anticipatory bail would lapse.

Additionally, he was ordered to appear before the court on Tuesday.

The ruling follows an application filed by Wa Iria under a certificate of urgency, which barred the commission from effecting his arrest in the Kes 140 million graft case involving seven other people.

"Justice Sifuna ordered the accused to present himself before EACC on Monday 22nd April 2024 for fingerprint taking and statement recording, then proceed to the Anti-Corruption Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, April 23, 2023, at 9 am to take plea,” EACC said.

During the hearing, EACC noted that the judge clarified that the conservatory orders secured from the Murang’a High Court by wa Iria only stopped the arrest of three accused persons: the ex-Governor himself, his wife Jane Waigwe Kimani, and her brother Solomon Mutura Kimani.

Justice Sifuna thus underscored that the remaining suspects should proceed to take a plea in the matter.

This comes after Iria was summoned to appear before the EACC on Tuesday this week, but his lawyers showed up instead and requested that he be allowed to postpone his appearance until Wednesday.

Patrick Kagumu Mukuria, Jane Wanjiru Mbuthia, David Maina Kiama, and David Mamma Njeri are Wa Iria's other co-accused.

The eight are set to be charged with Kes 140 million procurement fraud at the Murang’a County government between 2015 and 2016.