Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi lost a Sh10 million damages suit he had filed against the state for malicious arrest and prosecution over his alleged inciting ‘madoadoa’ remarks.
This is after High court judge Heston Nyaga dismissed the suit for lack of merit noting that the CS had failed to produce concrete evidence to prove his case.
The court further declined to bar the state from further investigating and pressing criminal charges against Linturi about the same incident.
“The upshot is that the petition is without merit and I hereby dismiss it in its entirety,” ruled Justice Nyaga
Linturi had filed the suit before the high court in 2022 following the decision by the prosecution not to charge him after failing to conclude investigations within the two months that had been granted by the court.
Public rally
Linturi, then Meru Senator, was arrested on the evening of January 8, 2022, at a hotel in Eldoret over remarks he had made earlier in the day during a public rally that was organised by the United Democratic Alliance (UDA).
He was taken to Nakuru’s Kaptembwo Police Station and produced in court on January 10, where the police through miscellaneous application, successfully applied to be allowed to conclude investigations before preferring charges on him.
Linturi was released on a conditional bail of Sh2 million and gagged from discussing the matter in public, contacting witnesses and was ordered to appear before the DCI offices regularly.
He was however set free when the police withdrew the application citing limited time granted by the court to conclude investigations.
In reaction, he then filed the suit for damages after accusing the police of being malicious, irrational, torturous and acting in bad faith by arresting him in the wee hours of the morning and driving him carelessly across several counties and detaining him for 38 hours.
Linturi argued that the state violated his fundamental rights and freedoms and that their actions demonstrate abuse of power the judicial process.
“The respondents are not the exercise of their own discretion but the result of unlawful collusion and /or pressure from the complainants or third parties.
Such decisions are illegal and contrary to the statute, public policy and the law,” read part of the application.
Linturi sought orders from the court declaring that investigations on him by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the DPP through the National Cohesion and Integration Commission violated his constitutional rights thus unlawful.
He further sought orders restraining the DCI and the DPP from proceeding with further investigations and pressing any charge against him in the matter.
He had listed the DPP, DCI and NCIC as respondents in the case.
The court however noted that the state acted within the constitution and that it did not violate his rights.
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