11 charges against businessman Jimi Wanjigi dropped

High court on Tuesday quashed charges pressed at the Nyeri Law court against businessman Jimi Wanjigi.

This is after Justice Pauline Nyamweya ruled that the Inspector General of Police and the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) acted in abuse of the court process and in bad faith.

Also Read: Wanjigi charged with being in possession of illegal firearms

He added that they were motivated by extraneous factors in the decisions made to charge and summon Wanjigi.

“The applicant is entitled to the order sought of certiorari to quash the impugned summons and charges,” the court ruled.

The judge further quashed the summons requiring Wanjigi to appear before the chief magistrate court at Nyeri on March 1, 2018 to take plea in criminal case and the charge sheet registered against him before the said court.

Also Read: Jimi Wanjigi snubs court summons

Justice Pauline Nyamweya noted that the reasons given by the Prosecution that Nyeri is Wanjigi’s rural home is not supported by law on the territorial jurisdiction of magistrate’s court in criminal cases not the constitutional imperatives of an expeditious trial.

“The DPP had argued that the applicant has the option of seeking a transfer of the place of trial. In my view this approach is not only abetting an illegality, but would also be prejudicial and unfair to Wanjigi as it entail additional expenses and inconvenience arising from an act which is not of the applicants making,” the judge said.

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“It is instructive in this respect that the DPP under the law is required in exercising its powers to avoid abuse of the legal process under the constitution and by charging Wanjigi in Nyeri Magistrates court, it violated the applicant’s legitimate expectations that the respondents would follow the correct legal process set out by law, ”court ruled.

Similarly the court ruled that the DPP action to charge him in Nyeri Law Court led to the inescapable conclusion that the said action was intended to prejudice the Wanjigi.

Wanjigi through lawyer his lawyers moved to the high court to challenge the process in which the case in Nyeri was filed, and argued that his constitutional rights had been violated.

According to the charge sheet in the Nyeri Law court, the prosecution pressed 11 charges against the businessman among them being possession of illegal firearms.