The judicial service commission (JSC) Friday forwarded 20 names to president William Ruto for appointment to the office of Judge of the High Court of Kenya. JSC said the 20 were from the 95 candidates interviewed, after shortlisting 100 candidates from a list of 350 people who had applied to become High Court judges. Four of the 100 shortlisted candidates withdrew their application while one was appointed the chief registrar of the judiciary. The selection interviews were conducted between April 3 and May 3. “After lengthy deliberations and consideration of the constitutional imperatives of merit, gender, regional/ethnic balance and affirmative…
Author: Pinnah Mokeira
A court acquitted former Dandora police commander Samir Yunus on allegations of abusing his office by harassing junior women officers at the station after finding that he was fixed by one of his junior female officer. The court found that there is overwhelming evidence that the Officer Commanding Station (OCS) and the complainant known JM were lovebirds for over three years before the material date. And the female cop fixed the OCS of sexual harassment after they broke up. A Milimani chief magistrate court acquitted him of all charges against him. Yunus was on June 15, 2019 charged with sexually…
A Meru High Court ordered a re-trial of an enforcement officer in the county who was charged with unlawfully damaging a pair of spectacles worth Sh20,000 and subsequently acquitted. In the judgment delivered on April 4, 2024, High Court judge Justice Edward Muriithi found that the trial court fell into error when it acquitted James Miriti Kobia yet the prosecution had established a prima facie case against him to warrant him being placed on his defence. Prima facie describes a fact or presumption that is sufficient to be regarded as true unless otherwise regarded as true unless otherwise disproved or…
Three senior officials of the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) were on Thursday released on a cash bail of Sh1 million or a bond of Sh3 million. They were arraigned before trial magistrate Celesa Okore over fraud of Sh209 million in the fake fertilizer probe. NCPB Managing Director Joseph Muna Kimote, John Kiplangat Ngetich (Corporate Secretary), and John Mbaya Matiri (General Marketing Manager) pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud farmers by selling 139,688 bags of 25 Kgs fertiliser valued at over Sh209 million purporting to be genuine fertiliser, a fact the prosecution claims the accused knew…
Former Murang’a governor Mwangi wa Iria was on Tuesday charged with over Sh351 million corruption related charges. He was arraigned alongside his co accused before a Milimani anti corruption court where he denied the charges. A section of Azimio leadership was in court when Wairia was arraigned. In count one the former governor is charged alongside the County Secretary of the Murang’a County Government, Directors of Top Image Media Consultants and Value View Limited, and his Personal Assistant respectively. They are accused of conspiring to commit an act of corruption. They allegedly engaged in fraudulent activities related to an unlawful…
A plea by four advocates to strike out a suit filed against them has been dismissed. The advocates had sought to have the suit, brought against them by Rings View Apartments Limited, removed from proceedings on the grounds that it lacked a reasonable cause of action. The suit stemmed from allegations by the plaintiff, who claimed breach of confidentiality and conflict of interest on the part of the advocates. Rings View Apartment Limited who are the registered proprietor of the suit property in Kileleshwa, took up a mortgage from KCB Bank Kenya Limited to facilitate constructions of apartments for Sh90…
Deliberate failure to pay an employee salary leading to resignation amounts to unfair labour practice and subsequent resignation in such circumstance amounts to constructive dismissal. Labor court judge Justice David Nderitu in his judgment dated January 25, 2024 said nonpayment of salary or wages as and when they fall due and payable subjects an employee to servitude, undue suffering, and indignity. Constructive dismissal is a situation where the employee is forced to leave or quit his/her job not because they want to, but because of the employer’s conduct. An employer who is unable to pay working employees, he said, shall…
TotalEnergies has received a setback after the high court dismissed its application that sought further 21 days to implement a court decision that directed it to pay businessman Ernest Mwaura Sh4 million. The leading supplier of petroleum and gas products company in East Africa had asked the court to extend time for them to comply with stay conditions issued by the High Court on November 10, 2023 by a further 21 days. The court had on November 10, 2023 granted TotalEnergies a stay of execution of ruling and decree issued by magistrate Sammy Opande on condition that they deposit Sh4…
The High Court found six accused persons guilty of the murder of former Juja member of Parliament George Thuo, who was poisoned on the night of November 17, 2013, at Porkies Restaurant in Thika. Delivering the judgement on Friday, Lady Justice Roselyn Korir ruled that the prosecution had proved its case against all the accused persons to the required legal standard. “Circumstantial evidence presented in court was not merely based on suspicion, it linked the accused persons to the death of the deceased…….It is my finding that the prosecution proved its case against the 1st,2nd,3rd,4th,5th and 6th accused to the…
The High Court on Thursday ordered the immediate reinstatement of Bomas of Kenya CEO Peter Koria who was suspended in November 2023 pending hearing of his case challenging his removal from office. Koria had been suspended from his position following a recommendation by the Ethics and Anti- Corruption Commission (EACC) and subsequent action by the Ministry of Gender, Culture, Arts and Heritage. Justice Nduma Nderi noted that the suspension, being disciplinary in nature ought to have been initiated by the Board of Bomas of Kenya (BOK) before the action taken by the Cabinet Secretary. Additionally, the court said the self-set…
Two men were Thursday charged with stealing gaming equipment valued at Sh1.3 million. The prosecution immediately made an application to deny the accused cash bail. The two Luis Boruta Nyawira Otieno and Stephen Wafula Okoni are alleged to have stolen from a gaming lounge belonging to former Director, Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) George Kinoti’s son Anthony Mwendwa Kinoti. They are accused of breaking into a building and committing a felony. The prosecution allege that the accused, along with accomplices not currently before the court, forcibly gained entry into the Quebec Gaming Lounge in the city and made away with…
A police officer who colluded with a thug to rob a cashier of over Sh15 million at gunpoint at Mitsumi Business Park, Parklands in Nairobi has pleaded with the court to give him a non custodial sentence. Corporal George Onyango Mtere attached to Ruiru police station and his co-accused Bernard Ogutu Okech were convicted of robbery with violence after senior principal magistrate Bernard Ochoi found them guilty of robbing Daksha Patel over Sh15 million at gunpoint. The 49-year-old police officer begged for mercy saying in his 25 years in the police force, he has never been involved in any criminal…
The Court of Appeal came to the aid of the government stating its assets cannot be attached in the execution of an order. The only method of execution, the three-judge bench stated is to institute Judicial Review proceedings and seek an order of mandamus compelling the accounting officer in the relevant ministry to pay the decretal amount. This is because the government is protected and given immunity from execution and attachment of its properties/goods under Section 21(4) of the Government Proceeding Act. The order of mandamus is of a most extensive remedial nature, and is, in form a command issuing…
A doctor is staring at a staggering 90 years behind bars after he was found guilty of various terrorism related charges. Mohammed Abdi, also known as Abu Fidaa, Abu Shuhadaa and Abdi Ramzi was convicted of being a member of a terrorist group and linking youths with other Islamic states of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters in Libya. He was also convicted of recruiting members, collecting and transmitting information for use in committing a terrorist act and being in possession of articles connected with the commission of a terrorist act. The charges could see him spend the 90 years in…
A key suspect in a series of frauds affecting local and foreign gold merchants was Friday released on Sh5 million bond. 28-year-old Nashon Otieno Angudha was also given a Sh1 million cash bail by senior principal magistrate Gilbert Shikwe. Angudha had on Thursday April 11 arraigned at Milimani Law Courts, after he was arrested Tuesday evening for obtaining Sh35 million from a businessman in a fake gold scam. In the fraudulent scheme orchestrated on diverse dates between July 13 and October 18, 2023, 28-year-old Nashon Otieno Angudha is accused of swindling the victim out of the millions by luring him…