Judge orders Joho to testify in person

Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho

Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho will have to testify in person in a petition he filed in court seeking orders to stop the State from charging him with forgery of a Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) result slip.

Friday, Justice Erick Ogola told the parties in the case to prepare their witnesses so that the case can be expedited.

“I want this matter to be concluded before the General Election because it might have some implication in the coming General Election,” said Justice Ogola.

The judge ordered the parties to come on May 30 for direction to fix the hearing date of the main petition in which Governor Joho wants the State to be permanently stopped from carrying investigation into claims he forged the result slip in 1992.

Last month, Joho filed a petition at the High Court after various State institutions including the Kenya National Examination Council, Kenya Revenue Authority and the Immigration Department launched near simultaneous probes on the governor’s birth certificate, academic record and tax returns.

Rights violated

Joho wanted the State agencies stopped from investigating him since he was innocent.

The State claims Joho forged a result showing he sat KCSE at Serani Secondary School in 1992 and used it to gain admission to the University of Nairobi. But Joho denied these allegations saying he sat KCSE exams at Serani in 1993 and joined Kampala University in Uganda. In April, the High Court found that the “flurry of investigations” against the governor were politically motivated. The court declined to halt the forgery investigation but ruled that no charges should be brought against the governor based on these investigations until the petition is heard and determined.

Last month Joho obtained orders stopping Director of Public Prosecution, Criminal Investigation Department, Inspector General of Police and Attorney General from harassing him.

Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecution Alex Muteti asked the court to give them time to seek instruction from his clients.

“I cannot respond to Joho’s application to amend his petition. I will respond to it after I have consulted my principals. I therefore ask for time to do so,” said Muteti.

Earlier, Joho’s lawyer Julie Soweto told the court that they had not responded to the reply of DPP with regard to claims that Joho’s rights was being violated. The lawyer who has filed a further affidavit says her client has been subjected to many problems including violently disrupting his rallies at Mpeketoni in Lamu on March 18 this year and March 20 Kenya Revenue Authority officials raided his bank accounts at Diamond Trust and CFC Stanbic Bank and froze his accounts.

Joho wants the court to declare the actions by the State against him oppressive, unfair, unreasonable, irrational, illegal and an abuse of power.

He wants court to order the withdrawal of the police investigating him over the alleged certificate and stop any criminal proceeding against him.