High Court orders DPP to produce court martial file for ex-military officer sentenced to life imprisonment

The High Court in Mombasa has ordered Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Keriako Tobiko to produce the original court martial file for an ex-military officer who was sentenced to life imprisonment on October 22 last year.

The directive was issued following the officer’s appeal before the High Court yesterday, seeking the court’s intervention to enable him apply for bail.

Justice Martin Muya ordered for the court martial file saying he needed to peruse it to determine whether or not Lt Geoffrey Pepela could be released on bail pending hearing of his appeal.

Deserted duty

The judge gave this order after the Lieutenant’s lawyer Ben Musundi complained that he had not been given the file despite having asked the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) for it.

“We have handled court martial cases before and we know the difficulty the appellant’s counsel is going through when he says the proceedings have not been availed to him,” Justice Muya said.

The judge said this after he rejected State Counsel Daniel Wamotsa’s suggestion that Musundi should look for the proceedings at KDF headquarters in Nairobi.

He ordered the DPP to file a response and have Pepela’s bail application heard on the same day.

Pepela is among soldiers who left the country in 2007 to look for greener pastures in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan where he secured a job with a US security firm.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment over claims he deserted duty while the country was at war with Somalia.

Pepela has moved to the High Court to have his conviction quashed and life sentence set aside.

Last week, the appellant successfully applied before Justice Maureen Odero to have his case certified as urgent.

Pepela has argued that the five member Court Martial, chaired by Judge Advocate Joyce Ganadani, which tried him, used manufactured and fabricated evidence to nail him and did not comply with Section 200 of the criminal procedures code while sentencing him to life imprisonment.

No evidence

He has also accused the Court Martial of ‘misdirecting’ itself by claiming he left the Kenya Armed Forces when he was in active service.

Musundi said the court did not consider his client’s evidence and went on to impose a harsh and excessive sentence based on insufficient evidence.

The lawyer insists his client resigned from KDF and was cleared by his superiors and accused KDF of convicting the appellant on manufactured evidence at Mtongwe Base.

“The learned Judge Advocate and fellow members erred in law in by convicting the appellant relying solely on insufficient evidence,” he said.