A Nairobi court will on October 13, 2025, rule whether to allow a former director of Oki Trading Company Limited (OTCL), Honey Khatwani, to temporarily reclaim his passport in order to travel to Dubai for a business trip. Khatwani, who is facing charges of stealing Sh356,711,174.40 from OTCL, filed an application seeking the release of his passport, for scheduled business engagement in Dubai between September 29 and October 16, 2025. When the matter came up for mention on Monday before Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Dolphina Alego, the prosecution, led by State Counsel Hillary Isiakho, requested for 14 days to file…
Author: Pinnah Mokeira
A police officer arrested in Nairobi with more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition will remain in custody until Monday, September 27, 2026 after a Nairobi court allowed him time to secure legal representation. Senior Principal Magistrate Geoffrey Onsarigo ruled that Corporal Isaac Kipngetich, an armourer attached to Turkana County Police Headquarters, could not be denied his right to counsel. He directed that the officer be held at Capitol Hill Police Station before the matter is mentioned before Senior Principal Magistrate Benmark Ikhubi. “The suspect has requested his counsel to represent him. That is one of the rights that this court…
A man accused of running a human trafficking syndicate was detained for ten days to allow police to complete investigations. The Kahawa Law Courts ordered that Edward Kamau Gituku be held at Muthaiga Police Station after prosecutors from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) applied for his continued detention. He is accused of involvement in a syndicate trafficking Kenyans to Russia to join the war against Ukraine. The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) told the court that Gituku was arrested on September 25, 2025 at Great Wall Gardens estate in Athi River, Machakos County, where officers rescued…
Two Somali teenagers captured in a viral video allegedly desecrating the Kenyan flag at Nyayo Stadium were detained at the Gigiri Child Protection Unit pending a social inquiry report. The minors, aged 14 and 17, were filmed on Saturday, September 20, 2025, during a football match between Mogadishu City Club and Police FC. They were later arrested and arraigned on Friday, September 26, 2025, before Senior Resident Magistrate Rose Gitau at the Milimani law court. The prosecution sought to have them detained a the Youth Corrective Training Centre (YCTC) at Kamiti Prison pending age assessment. However, their lawyer, Ishmael Nyaribo,…
A Nairobi court acquitted a Somali man accused of fraudulently obtaining Kenyan registration documents, giving false information to public officers, and being unlawfully present in the country, after finding that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. Delivering judgment on September 22, 2025, Principal Magistrate Rose Ndombi ruled that the evidence presented against Abdihakim Saidi Jama was riddled with gaps and inconsistencies that could not sustain a conviction. Jama had been charged with three counts allegedly committed in 2011 when he applied for a national identity card in Isiolo, including obtaining registration by false pretence, giving…
A Milimani Chief Magistrate’s Court was told how former Oki Trading Company Limited (OTCL) Managing Director, Honey Khatwani, allegedly diverted more than Sh356 million from the company into his personal accounts. Two prosecution witnesses testified before Chief Magistrate Dolphina Alego, detailing how the ex-director allegedly manipulated company finances, exploited staff, and secretly established a competing business between 2020 and 2024. The first witness, Jatin Aswani, said he joined OTCL in July 2023 but worked without proper documentation because Khatwani failed to process his work permit. He told the court that although he signed an employment contract, he was never issued…
The National Police Service (NPS) Thursday accused a Milimani Chief Magistrate’s Court of breaching evidentiary rules by compelling the production of the police Arms Movement Register in the ongoing inquest into the death of Rex Kanyike Massai. In an application filed under Section 363 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the NPS wants the court to review and set aside its ex tempore ruling delivered on September 3 which allowed the register to be produced and marked as exhibits following an oral application by prosecution counsel. Through an affidavit sworn by Corporal Fredrick Okapesi, the armourer at Central Police Station, the…
The High Court Wednesday ordered the government to respond to a petition filed by the family of Administration Police officer Benedict Kabiru Kuria, who went missing while serving in Haiti under the United Nations-sanctioned multinational security mission. Justice Chacha Mwita on Wednesday gave the petitioners seven days to file and serve a supplementary affidavit, after which the respondents including the Attorney General, the Inspector General of Police, the Deputy Inspector General of Administration Police, the Cabinet Secretary for Interior, and the Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs will have seven days to reply. The matter will be mentioned virtually…
A pathologist told the High Court that the injuries sustained by the Kianjokoma brothers, whose deaths sparked national outrage in 2021, were inconsistent with claims that they jumped from a moving police vehicle. Testifying before lady Justice Margaret Muigai, the witness said she performed postmortem examinations on Emmanuel Mutura (19) and Benson Njiru (22) on August 5, 2021 at Embu Level 5 Hospital. Her findings pointed to severe blunt force trauma as the cause of death in both cases. For Emmanuel, the doctor reported extensive bruising to the face, multiple segmented fractures of the skull, and lacerations to the brain.…
Former Nairobi Provincial Commissioner (PC) Davis Nathan Chelogoi denied forging documents in a Sh1.3 billion land fraud case. He told Chief magistrate Dolphina Alego that he lawfully acquired the contested property in Lower Kabete and that all processes leading to his ownership were conducted transparently. Chelogoi said he was first allocated the land in 1995 while serving as a District Commissioner but was unable to complete the process then due to financial constraints. He told the court his salary at the time was Sh24,000, rising to about Sh40,000 with allowances, and sometimes his net income dropped to Sh16,000. “Because of…
The Milimani High Court ordered that the case on the killing of six-month-old Baby Samantha Pendo during the 2017 post-election violence be transferred from Nairobi to the Kisumu High Court. Delivering the ruling, Lady Justice Margaret Muigai said the transfer was necessary to ensure efficient gathering of evidence, reduced costs, and expedited proceedings in the interest of justice and public interest. The court further directed the National Police Service (NPS) to provide adequate protection for both witnesses and accused persons during transport and hearings. A senior officer from the Inspector General’s office will also be required to give regular status…
The family of the late 90 year-old Mburu Kinani have threatened to move to court to seek exhumation orders after alleging that his body was secretly buried at night by his stepchildren without their knowledge or participation. Mburu is the father to Kiambu County Deputy Governor Rosemary Njeri Kirika. Through their lawyers Danstan Omari and Stanley Kinyanjui, the deceased’s biological children argue they learned that their father was buried on the evening of September 17, 2025 at 6 p.m. barely 24 hours after a court issued a judgment. They explained that although a magistrate had issued orders stopping the burial,…
A group of retired Standard Chartered Bank Kenya staff not included in the “629 pensioners” category accused the bank and its pension trustees of ignoring multiple court rulings that found the lender unlawfully miscalculated their benefits. Through their lawyer Danstan Omari, the “non-629” members, said the bank had consistently defied the Retirement Benefits Tribunal, the High Court, the Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court, all of which confirmed that the wrong actuarial factors were applied when the scheme transitioned from a defined benefit to a defined contribution plan on January 1, 1999. They are now threatening to seek the…
The Court of Appeal overturned High Court rulings that found former Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr. Fred Matiang’i, former Immigration Principal Secretary Dr. Gordon Kihalangwa, and former Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet in contempt of court over the dramatic 2018 detention of lawyer and activist Miguna Miguna at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. A three-judge bench comprising of Justices Wanjiru Karanja, Lydia Achode and Joel Ngugi held that while the State officials were accused of defying valid court orders, the High Court erred by convicting and penalizing them without following proper procedure. In March 2018, Justice George Odunga fined the three…
The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) Friday dismissed as false and misleading allegations by Captain Kungu Muigai that judges were bribed to rule against him in long-running cases involving his companies. In a statement, the JSC said it had noted with concern a video posted on social media by Captain Muigai, accusing certain judges of corruption and faulting the Commission for dismissing his petitions. According to the JSC, Captain Muigai filed five petitions on October 11, 2024, seeking the removal of 10 judges of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal. He accused them of misconduct for upholding what he…