Court declines to issue warrant of arrest against Jimi Wanjigi

A court in Nyeri on Thursday declined to issue a warrant of arrest against businessman Jimi Wanjigi.

Nyeri Chief Magistrate Wendy Kagendo turned down a request by the State to issue a warrant of arrest for the businessman for failing to honour court summons.

Kagendo, however, directed Wanjigi, who was represented in court by his lawyer, to appear before her on March 5 to answer to 11 counts of being in possession of firearms without a certificate. But the High Court later suspended the criminal case against him at the Nyeri Law Courts.

The decision by Justice George Odunga means that Wanjigi will not appear at the lower court next Monday as ordered by the magistrate.

Immediately after the court in Nyeri started its business, the State, through Senior Counsel Wesley Nyamache, applied to have the businessman arrested for failing to appear in court despite being served with summons.

But Wanjigi, through his lawyer Kiogora Mugambi, opposed the application, and complained about the manner in which the summons was served. Officers pasted the summons on the windscreen of his car.

“There was no seal or stamp on the summons. What was there was just a mere court case number on the said document,” Mugambi explained.

The lawyer noted his client had last October at the Milimani Law Courts obtained an anticipatory bail of Sh20, 000, preventing the police from arresting him and his wife.

The lawyer later made an application to have the case deferred for two weeks to enable defence team, including senior counsel James Orengo, respond to the charges levelled against Wanjigi.

The State, however, opposed the application to have the matter deferred for two weeks.

“Five days are sufficient for the defence to respond and examine the charges,” Nyamache stated.

The magistrate noted that five days were adequate to allow the defence to prepare itself and deferred the plea taking to Monday.

Security was tight with dozens of police officers deployed inside and outside the court in Nyeri in anticipation the controversial businessman would appear in person.