The High Court on Thursday dismissed the reason for Inspector General (IG) of Police, Joseph Boinnet failing to execute a warrant of arrest against the Defence Principal Secretary (PS) Saitoti Torome.
Boinnet stated that he could not apprehend the PS after he was told that Torome had applied for a stay of the order.
“I was unable to take the warrant based on the application by the PS seeking to stay orders of the sentence given on November 23 and against the warrant issued on November 29,” Boinnet mentioned.
The IG was summoned by the High Court for failing to arrest PS Torome, who is wanted for failure to appear in court over Sh17 Million graft and was to be jailed on Monday for contempt.
[caption caption="Defence PS Saitoti Torome"]
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However, the applicant’s lawyer Lucy Momanyi commented that she was not aware of any application of stay of the order or any notice filed at the Court of Appeal by the respondents.
“There is no such application. When the respondent’s lawyer informed me of the application, I went to the Court of Appeal to confirm the same but found no such file,” Momanyi asserted.
She added that Boinnet was to explain why he could not execute the orders given by the court.
“A valid judgment delivered in 2015 that has not been appealed asking the ministry to pay the money has never been followed by any action,” she affirmed.
Momanyi further noted that Mr Torome has not refused to pay the money in question despite the Attorney General giving permission for the payment to be made.
[caption caption="Attorney General Githu Muigai"]
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She highlighted that failure of the PS to pay the funds is criminal and the IG not executing the orders is also a criminal offence.
Ms Momanyi, therefore, asked the office of the DPP to intervene.
Last month, the same court sentenced the PS to six months in civil jail for contempt and issued another warrant on November 30 through the office of the IG.
Judge Sergon passed the sentence after Torome failed to obey an order to pay Sh17,257,930 to a family which gave its land to the government in 2006.
