The High Court has quashed criminal charges against businessman Jimmy Wanjigi.
Justice Pauline Nyamweya on Tuesday dismissed the summons that required Wanjigito appear before the chief magistrate’s court in Nyeri on March 1, 2018, to take
Wanjigi through lawyer Nelson Havi moved to the High Court to challenge the process in which the case in Nyeri was filed, and argued that his constitutional rights had been violated.
Last year, police officers had summoned him to appear at Nyeri Court away from where the crime had been allegedly committed. While defending their actions, the DPP and the IG explained to the court that they opted to charge Wanjigi in Nyeri as it was his rural home.
However, the businessman explained that he had not been at his village in Nyeri for over a year and it would beat logic to leave courts in Nairobi and its surrounding for the remote court (in Nyeri).
While serving the summons, the officers blocked Wanjigi’s car near Museum Hill in Nairobi after he declined to get out, demanding to know the reason for his arrest.
They mounted court summons on his windscreen, informing him he was wanted before a magistrate’s court in Nyeri over the criminal case. Nyamweya yesterday termed the IG and DPP action as abuse of the court process.
According to the judge, IG and DPP were motivated by extraneous factors and thus he is entitled to the order to quash the impugned summons and charges.
The judge also observed that Wanjigi was arrested and charged despite obtaining orders from the High Court barring the State from taking any action against him.