The
Opening Statement: Prosecution
“Your Honour,
A great task awaits all of us
Calling upon us to right a wrong
And punish a prohibited act
This we do in this court
to find blame or otherwise,
to accord justice to the injured party
What an honourable task!
Your Honour,
The accused seated there
Armed with a wicked ingenuity
Misdirected artistry and knack
In cahoots with others, in a
‘most evil enterprise’,
Devised a computer program
That siphoned millions of money
From the accounts of thousands
Of hard-working, disciplined Kenyans
Working on the same egregious and abominable
Plan, they registered a company using false passports
Used the company as a conduit
To channel that money, not in a single moment
Struck by their consciences;
But true as a pin is to needle, the bell
Of their actions tolls for them, the bits and pieces
Have fallen into place, and what lay hidden
Has now been exposed and is now being tried in this
Honourable Court
Justice will be dispensed in this court
To put the accused behind bars
Your Honour, we will show in our evidence
That the accused committed various offences
And that he belongs to prison…”
The
Opening Statement: Defence
“Your Honour,
If it pleases the court,
I wish to give an opening statement
As we have heard from the Prosecution
He says that our client, defrauded in a ‘most evil
enterprise’ through a well-calculated
Scheme using a computer program;
He says that our client committed
A most ‘egregious and abominable’ act
That fleeced Kenyans of their hard-earned money
The prosecution thus said
That they will adduce evidence to show
That our client deserves to be locked behind bars
That his actions don’t deserve ‘approbation’
But ‘opprobrium’
That much, the Prosecution said of our client—
Your Honour, look at the accused
A banker for 25 years standing
An impeccable record in the industry
A father of three, a husband
A Kenyan like any other who, were it not for this case,
We would not have known about
The eloquence of the prosecutor
To paint a picture of our client
Using the most arrant and sordid of terms
Brilliant as this could be, cannot impose guilt
As we will show, Your Honour, this is
A case of a disgruntled employer
Intent on leveling charges it cannot substantiate
Keen on tarnishing our client’s name
We will demonstrate to this court that
There is no nexus between the crimes
Alleged with our client
We will do this, one piece of evidence after another
One assertion after another, one argument after another
We will put the prosecution to strict proof
To reveal, Your Honour, that
In fact, our client never committed the said offences
and that this is purely actuated by malice…”
C) Lorot Salem 2011
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