High Court Judge James Wakiaga has announced that he is stepping down from hearing the murder case of former Kabete Member of Parliament George Muchai.
Daily Nation reports that Justice Wakiaga succumbed to pressure from suspects in the case to recuse himself over alleged bias.
The judge said on Tuesday that the five people accused of killing the ex-MP had filed a complaint against him at the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) accusing him of gross misconduct and incompetence.
Justice Wakiaga detailed that the environment made it difficult for him to conduct a meaningful trial hence the decision to disqualify himself from the case.
In October 2019, it emerged that the suspects in the case were demanding that justice Wakiaga recuses himself from the murder trial. The suspects said that they had lost confidence in him.
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The suspects are Raphael Kimani alias Kim Butcher, Kimani Anyonyi alias Musti, Stephen Lipapo alias Chokore and Erick Muyera alias Chairman.
“We are not satisfied with this court. We have lost confidence in it and we want the judge to disqualify itself for being biased,” the suspects charged with murder said.
Their co-accused, ane Kamau, Margaret Wachuiri, said they had no problem with the trial Judge and requested the case to proceed without further delay.
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The suspects are accused of killing Muchai his driver Stephen Wambugu and bodyguards Samuel Kalikia and Samuel Matanta on February 6, 2015, on Kenyatta Avenue, Nairobi County.
The incident, according to police, happened between 3am and 4.30am.
The deceased were in the same sport utility vehicle ahead of another vehicle carrying family members, including the late MP’s wife and a daughter.
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The occupants of the second vehicle said the Muchai stopped at the roundabout when four people with big guns approached his car and started shooting.
“They just started spraying it with bullets. When we saw that, our driver sped past the other car and when we came back to the scene a few minutes later, all the occupants of the vehicle were dead,” a relative said.
A newspaper vendor who witnessed the shooting told the police that the gunmen who led the shooting had a face mask.
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