Joseph Jowie Irungu wants judge to recuse himself over woman eater remark

Joseph ‘Jowie’ Irungu, the main suspect in the murder of Monica Kimani, has filed a petition to have Justice James Wakiaga recuse himself from the case.

According to his advocates, Cliff Ombeta and Sam Nyaberi, Justice Wakiaga exhibited bias and impartiality in the bail/bond ruling delivered on October 30.

Jowie, who is charged alongside Citizen TV journalist Jacque Maribe, was denied bail whereas Maribe was released on a Ksh.1million cash bail and three sureties.

In the notice of motion filed on Wednesday, the applicant expressed reasonable apprehension that he will not get a fair trial before the said court following allegations of unfounded and derogatory remarks and conclusions made by the judge in the said ruling.

In his ruling, justice Wakiaga said: “The picture that emerges from the prosecution’s affidavit and the pre-bail report of the 1st accused person (Jowie) is that of a male version of a slay queen which for lack of better terminology, I shall call a woman eater…”

Jowi through his advocates argue that the judge exhibited lack of independence, impartiality and equality which is required of a judicial officers and there is likelihood of bias if the main trial is continues before him.

In the affidavit filed in court, Jowie says he is dissatisfied and feels aggrieved by some of the findings, remarks and derogatory comments and conclusions of the judge against him and his character.

According to the affidavit, Jowi says he convinced that Justice Wakiaga is denying him bail not on the merits of facts and evidence placed before him but on account of external influence and consideration of false and misleading information in the main and social media platforms against the backdrop of legal and constitutional consideration.

In another paragraph of the ruling, Wakiaga stated: “I have set out the history of this matter at the very outset since it has generated a lot of public interest both main and social media and it is in the best interest of justice that the record speaks for itself so as to put media speculations to rest…”

Jowie in his affidavit lamented that the judge has already passed judgement on him, painted him as a criminal and found him guilty as charged.

He states that from such comments, it is obvious that in the mind of the judge he is a hopeless person who only depends on women for sex and even kill them if he must.

“The judge has already taken away my innocence till proven guilty, stripped me of my dignity, respect and my rights to societal standing”, cry Jowie.

Further, Jowie adds that in the ruling, Judge Wakiaga made a conlusion and comparison between him and his co-accused when he stated in a paragraph “the second accused (Maribe) on the other hand is so sure of her innocence that she might only be convicted of the offense of being inlove which is not a known offence under our law…,that the investigations were only related to the first accused and not second accused….”,and that Wakiaga went ahead to juxtapose the innocence of Maribe with Adam and Eve’s story in the Bible.

Jowie further claims that he will not get a fair trial nor conviction and has already lodged a complaint letter with the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) over Justice Wakiaga’s conduct.

The matter is yet to be presented before the court for directions.