Reprieve for Maribe as Prosecutor allows access to her house

Citizen TV journalist Jacque Maribe can now breathe a sigh of relief after the court was told that she will have access to her house from today.

Prosecutor Catherine Mwaniki however said her phone is an exhibit in the case and will be released once it is produced in court.

In regard to her vehicle, Ms Mwaniki told the court that: “…we are waiting for a report from the government chemist which is not ready on whether they should release it or use it as an exhibit.”

This comes barely hours after Maribe filed a contempt of court application, arguing that she had not been allowed to access to her house.

The journalist claimed that she has had to ‘beg for clothes and accommodation’ since her abode was cordoned off as a crime scene.

She has reportedly also gone without medication and had to ‘borrow’ a mobile phone.

Maribe was arrested on September 29 over allegations that she was linked to the murder of Monica Kimani, a Nairobi businesswoman.

A month later, she was released on Ksh.2million bail after Justice James Wakiaga indicated that there was no indication that she posed a flight risk.

The judge further ruled that the Prosecution did not prove that she would interfere with witnesses.

Her co-accused Joseph ‘Jowie’ Irungu is however still in police custody at the Kamiti Maximum Prison.

The court said he had no known residence and with his previous travels to the Middle East there was no guarantee that he would not jump bail.

Irungu had earlier attempted to get Justice Wakiaga to recuse himself from the case citing remarks that according to him were ‘degrading.”

During the hearing of the case on October 30, Justice Wakiaga labelled Jowie as a ‘woman eater.’

However, on November 27, the court was told that Irungu, the main suspect in the murder case, had withdrawn the application.