DPP Keriako Tobiko's bid to terminate kidnapping case of Embu speaker Kariuki Mate flops

Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko

NAIROBI, KENYA: A bid by Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko to terminate case against a CID officer accused of kidnapping Embu County speaker Kariuki Mate has hit a snag after a Nairobi court directed the case to proceed to full trial.

Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Ellena Nderitu ruled that the application by the DPP to withdraw the case against Nicholas Muriuki  Kangangi of CID Starehe under section 87(a) of the Criminal Procedure Code was an abuse of the prosecutorial powers bestowed upon the DPP's office saying such an attempt was out of malice and bad faith.

Muriuki had been charged with the offence of abducting Mate at Utalli Hotel, Nairobi on May 19.

He was also charged with intent to cause secret and wrongful confinement, charges he denied and was released on a bond of Sh100,000 pending the hearing of the case.

He was arrested on the premise of a "missed" phone call he made to the speaker shortly before he walked out of the Utalli Hotel and disappeared.  Mr Mate was found on Limuru Road near St Paul's University three days after he went missing.

On September 5 Tobiko wrote to Director of Criminal Investigations Ndegwa Muhoro seeking to have the case against Muriuki terminated citing lack of evidence. He said upon perusal of the file he concluded that there was no sufficient evidence to sustain the charges against the officer. He directed the case to be terminated and referred the matter to Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo and the National Police Service for further directions.

The prosecution made the application before Mrs  Nderitu on the 26th September 2014 seeking to withdraw the offence the kidnapping charges against the officer.

However Muriuki's lawyer Morris Karigi opposed the application on grounds that the DPP's powers to withdraw ought to be subjected to the court granting such leave. He submitted that the DPP had ulterior motives in the case and he had acted in bad faith contrary to Article 157(11) of the constitution.