The High Court in Eldoret has adjourned the hearing of a murder case against suspected serial killer Evans Wanjala after his advocate pulled out of the case.
The prosecution noted that the advocate who had been appointed to represent Wanjala pro bono had on several occasions failed to show up in court before finally writing to bail out of the case.
Justice Reuben Nyakundi who was presiding over the matter directed that the court appoints another advocate to represent the accused on a pro bono basis.
"Another advocate should be appointed to represent the accused person. The case will be mentioned on March 16 to confirm the appointment of a new advocate before the hearing of the matter begins," directed Justice Nyakundi.
The law requires that every person accused of murder be represented by an advocate, either hired by the accused person or appointed by the court if one cannot afford legal fees.
When the case came up for hearing last year, the prosecution had stated that it was ready to proceed with the case since the witnesses were ready to testify.
However, Wanjala, 35, had told the judge that he did not know who his advocate was.
"I do not know who my lawyer is. We have not met before, and I thought that I would see him in court today," said Wanjala.
Justice Nyakundi had then directed that the case be scheduled for today and that the advocate be alerted of the matter.
Wanjala who is facing three separate murder charges in the killing of three children was given different lawyers for each case.
In February 2020, the court refused to release him on bail or bond for the second time, directing that he be held at remand prison instead.
Wanjala is suspected to be behind the murder of five minors from Moi's Bridge in Uasin Gishu between 2019 and 2021 although two of the murder allegations are still under investigation. In this picture taken on July 14, 2021, murder suspect Evans Wanjala after leading a team of detectives from DCI and colleagues from other agencies to the scene where he is suspected to have killed five children, all of them girls, at Moi's Bridge in Uasin Gishu County. [Peter Ochieng, Standard]
He is facing murder charges after the deaths of minors Linda Cherono13, Stacy Nabiso10, and Mary Elusa14.
While ruling on the bond application, Justice Eric Ogola noted that the prosecution had provided overwhelming reasons to deny him the bond.
"This court is satisfied that the applicant's entitlement to bond can be interfered with by this court on the strength of the above overwhelming reasons given by the prosecution.
For the foregoing reasons, the application for bond/bail is denied, and the accused shall be tried while in remand," ruled Justice Ogola.
The court noted that Wanjala was a habitual offender who had pending warrants of arrest on claims of sexual offences in Chief Magistrate courts in Makindu and Kajiado.
"I have seen in the proceedings that the accused has also been charged with a similar offence in Eldoret HCCR No E048 and HCCR No E049. In all these cases, the victims are minors aged between 10 and 14 years old and have signs of defilement and physical torture depicting a similar modus operandi (style) of a serial offender," read part of the judgment.
Justice Ogola noted from the prosecution's affidavit that the accused had made an out-of-court confession and led the investigators to various scenes of crime where he admitted to having abducted, defiled and killed his victims.
Wanla was, on August 25, 2021, arraigned before Kapenguria High Court where he denied charges of murder.
Wanjala faced the murder charges preferred against him by a committee formed by the ODPP as detectives continued with investigations into the murder of two other minors.
The matter will come up for a hearing on March 29.
