Reprieve for Joho as court terminates all investigations on him

Governor Hassan Joho and supporters outside the Mombasa High Court.

A judge has terminated all investigations launched by State agencies on Mombasa Governor Hassan Ali Joho.

The judge said the cases issued from a vile conspiracy to terminate his political career in the wake of his differences with President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Justice Eric Ogola ruled that all investigations were launched simultaneously after Joho publicly differed with the president.

February quarrel

The judge referred to the President’s use of the Kiswahili word “tutakunyorosha” (we will teach you a lesson) in the wake of the mid-February quarrel between the Head of State and the governor and said investigating agencies thought Uhuru had given them the cue to descend on Joho.

According to the judge, the various State agencies that descended on Joho and fell “head over heels” investigating almost everything from the governor’s academic certificates, tax and birth records, were malicious.

The judge also said one of the investigations attempted to revive a matter that had been settled by the High Court in 2013 when Joho first vied for the governor’s post.

The judge concluded that an impression had been created that Joho was under perpetual investigation.

According to the governor, it was most likely the President spoke out of anger but the State agencies fell over each other after miscontruing Uhuru’s words and believing they had received a licence to move on Joho.

“In my view, the decision of the State to open up a string of investigations against the petitioner is unfair, discriminative, irrational, abuse of power and violates his fundamental rights,” said Justice Ogola.

Joho sued the Inspector-General of Police, Director of Criminal Investigations, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Attorney-General for harassment and intimidation.

On March 31, the judge granted Joho orders stopping police and the DPP from arresting, charging and prosecuting him.

Thursday, Ogola said the investigations opened against Joho by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC), Inspector General, Attorney General and DPP stemmed from President Kenyatta’s utterance.

He said the investigation of Joho’s alleged forgery of academic papers was a move to cause him election distress on his governorship race that he actually won.

“The petitioner is the governor of Mombasa and his election was challenged on grounds of his academic papers though it is a matter that was determined by another court and now there is an alleged forgery of his KCSE certificate,” said Justice Ogola.

The judge noted that Joho has never been charged since 2013 when a Ms Janet Mbete first filed a case in court challenging the credibility and authenticity of his academic papers.

He said despite the accusations, the DPP was yet to charge the governor.

Justice Ogola accused the DPP of being used as a tool to settle political scores between the president and the governor.

He said the idea of the bringing up the investigations against the governor ahead of August 8 election was intended to cripple his quest to run for governorship.

Justice Ogola said the IG, AG and DPP coordinated a plan to stress the petitioner.

Court abuse

Ogola said the investigations amounts to malice, harassment on the governor and abuse of the judicial system.

“All alleged investigations by the Government agencies have a political ending in my observation,” said Ogola.

In April 2017, Justice Ogola said investigations on his academic certificates by the DPP had not been stopped although it had become comical in the manner it was being displayed in the public domain.

This was after the governor filed a petition stopping the DPP from investigating, arresting, charging and prosecuting him over his alleged forgery of academic certificates.

The orders by Justice Ogola bar KNEC, DCI and KRA from interfering with Joho’s constitutional rights.

The order also apply to any investigations relating to the alleged forgery of the 1992 KCSE result slip.

Joho was represented by lawyer James Orengo, Dennis Mosota and Julie Soweto.

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