Reprieve for Malala in case

The High Court has suspended the hearing of a case in which Senator Cleophas Malala is charged with incitement to violence.

Mr Malala is accused of committing the offence in the run-up to the 2017 repeat presidential election.

Judge Jesse Njagi, in his ruling yesterday, noted that Malala took plea in a Resident Magistrate's Court that lacks jurisdiction to hear and determine the matter.

This is after the senator filed a constitutional review application at the High Court, challenging the senior resident magistrate for allowing him to take plea in an election offence case, yet he was not gazetted to handle such offences.

Justice Njagi upheld the senator's submissions that Chief Justice David Maraga had on September 29, 2017 appointed specific magistrates to handle election offence matters under Election Offences Act.

Justice Njagi ruled that jurisdiction is a weighty issue and goes to the root of any proceeding and barred the DPP from preferring new charges,” he ruled.