Mganga guilty of trying to take mentally ill man's land

A court in Mumias will give its judgment after getting final pleadings from a traditional healer and his accomplice in a case where they were found guilty of conspiring to steal from a mentally ill man.

The medicine man, Ali Merabu Imbundu and his accomplice Peter Zakayo Olukhalikha were charged with conspiring to defraud the ill man's 1.3-acre piece of land in Lusheya village in Mumias East, among other fraud-related counts.

The duo had earlier contested the labelling of the ill man as a vulnerable witness who needs representation after the society of people living with disabilities took to fight for his right in line with Section 17 (2) of the Victims Protection Act.

The accused duo also unsuccessfully contest the judgment ability of the mentally ill saying he was sober to the level of entering a land agreement deal. This forced the prosecution to bring a medic, Linah Akelo to speak on it.

"Mental illness is complex, it doesn't mean one has to walk naked or in torn clothes to benefit the title, one could be an adult, know his home and even be able to utter a few words but not be able to weigh the consequences of his actions like the complainant whom you are charged with stealing from," said the psychiatrist from Kakamega Referral hospital when she testified against the accused.

"We examined the victim on January 14, 2021 and realised he was incoherent in speech and could not even sustain a conversation. His condition is intellectual disability. We therefore determined that he is not fit to represent himself in court and needs representation."

After the closure of the hearing the duo were placed on their defense pending sentencing and, to untangle themselves they presented three defense witnesses among them Ali Saleh who was labelled "hostile".

Saleh who took on the dock to save his father from the charges of stealing land from the mentally ill man and forging documents has been labelled hostile for hoarding truth in the case.

Hostile witness

Mumias Principal magistrate Gabriel Omondi noted that Ali Saleh gave evidence in a manner that showed he was "not desirous of telling the truth to the court, " which went against the law.

"Mr Saleh, I have recorded you hostile for answering questions in a manner to suggest you don't want to tell the court the truth even after swearing to do so," he said.

Saleh who stood in the dock as the author of the land sale agreement between the mentally ill man and his (Saleh) father could not explain how a sober man can engage the mentally ill and how the signature of a dead person-the mother to the mentally ill man- found itself in the agreement.

"You list Martha Amanya as witnesses in the land sale agreement of the land of the victim. Are you aware Mrs Amanya who is also the mother of the complainant in this case was dead when you were drafting the pact? Or you want us to believe the dead rose from the grave to sign the deed seeing her signature and ID number appear on it?" State lawyer Erick Mutua asked, to which Saleh refused to answer.

Mutua prodded: "Mr Saleh now that you don't want to answer that, try this one: Can you make a deal with a mentally ill man?" to which Saleh responded, "Yes, you can make it."

Asked how that was possible, Saleh refused once again to answer instead choosing to speak to different questions that were not levelled at him ignoring Mr Mutua's pleas that he stick to answering what he had been asked.

This made the magistrate interject and plead with Saleh to stick to what he was asked as he had descended to a point of wasting the court's time.

That did not help much as the man in his late 30s refused to directly respond to questions thrown at him making the prosecution ask that it be recorded he refused to answer, an application the court allowed asking Saleh to step down from the witness stand.

"I could have imprisoned you for that but will let you free today," said magistrate Omondi.