Court withdraws order releasing businessman Humphrey Kariukis passports

Nairobi businessman Humphrey Kariuki on Wednesday suffered a setback after a Magistrate’s court set aside an earlier order that had directed the release of his passports.

Magistrate Kennedy Cheruiyot, who had issued the earlier order, ruled that Kariuki should make the application for the release of his passports in Case 1333 of 2019, which is before a different court.

Cheruiyot last Thursday directed that the passports should be released to Kariuki to enable him travel but he was unable to secure them since they were missing in the court file.

When Kariuki returned to court through lawyer Cecil Miller on Friday, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) was ordered to deposit the passports in court on Monday.

However on Monday, the DPP raised the issue of the existence of two other court cases and different bond terms, prompting Magistrate Martha Mutuku in whose court the file had been placed to direct that the case be taken before Cheruiyot to issue appropriate orders.

On Tuesday morning, the DPP again raised the issue of the existence of two other cases, and urged the court to verify the different bond terms issued in all the cases.

Lawyer Miller objected and urged the court to release the passports to Kariuki and verify that the surety he had obtained was acceptable to the court.

The matter was then adjourned to Tuesday afternoon.

It was after perusing the files before the different courts that Cheruiyot directed that even though the application in which he ruled on had merit hence his earlier order, it should now be made before another court.

Earlier Tuesday in another case before the High Court,  Lawyer Miller had complained about the numerous court cases and orders sought by the prosecution, arguing that they are meant to inconvenience and frustrate Kariuki and his companies.

He argued that the criminal matters before the court were all reported on the same day and that all charge sheets bear the same Occurrence Book (OB) number.