Nairobi, Feb. 12 -- A Nairobi court has acquitted four people charged alongside oil tycoon Yagnesh Devani with the theft of fuel worth more than Sh1 billion at the Kipevu Oil Refinery in Mombasa in 2008.

Milimani senior principal magistrate Zainab Abdul freed Samson Waka and Peter Muthungu of KCB Bank, Mahindra Pathak, former finance manager at Triton Petroleum Company Limited and William Mundia for lack of evidence.

The magistrate ruled that the evidence the prosecution tabled was insufficient to sustain the trial or place the four on their defence.

The four had been charged with discounting invoices of Triton at KCB amounting to $12,241,873.90 (Sh1,946,457,950.10) when Triton had not sold any oil.

"I find the prosecution has failed ...