Waiganjo set free as magistrate drops police impersonation case

Joshua Waiganjo at the Nakuru Law Courts in 2020. [File, Standard]

After more than 10 years in police cells, hospital beds, corridors of justice, and prison Joshua Karianjahi Waiganjo is now a free man.

This is after a Naivasha court yesterday acquitted him of five counts of impersonation.

While releasing him, Naivasha Chief Magistrate Nathan Lutta noted the Court of Appeal had in 2017 made a ruling that Waiganjo be released.

The magistrate added that the prosecution had made an application to have the case withdrawn under section 87(a) but the accused declined as he feared for his rearrest.

Lutta noted that Waiganjo had lodged an appeal in the case through the High Court in Naivasha but moved to the Court of Appeal in 2017 after he was dissatisfied with the outcome.

"The Court of Appeal in its ruling directed that the accused person be set free and this court is bound by the doctrine of stare decisis and the accused is acquitted under section 210 of the CPC," he said.

In 2013, he was arraigned in a Naivasha court and charged with impersonating a senior police officer, robbery with violence, and having police uniforms.

The case, however, collapsed as some witnesses failed to appear in court while some of the evidence went missing.