Blogger Dennis Itumbi has announced his next course of action after the court dismissed his application to privately prosecute Interior CS Fred Matiang’i over the Ruaraka land scam.
“It is not over yet. I will seek a revision of the judgment at the High Court,” Itumbi told Kenyans.co.ke.
The digital strategist also said that he would seek to have Magistrate Douglas Ogoti recuse himself from the case.
“As I prosecuted my application, the Magistrate was indifferent to me and exhibited open bias towards my application,” Itumbi stated in documents to be filed in the High Court.
Itumbi accused Ogoti of making statements which to him appeared as though the magistrate was acting for CS Matiang’i.
“You know we are dealing with legal issues, hakuna mambo ya facts hapa,” the magistrate quipped in response to Itumbi's social media campaign dubbed system ya facts during the hearing on Tuesday, November 24.
“The referenced statement from a judicial officer who is expected to be a neutral umpire and decide cases based on only facts and the law is unbecoming and ought to be called into question,” Itumbi stated.
He argued that allowing a judicial officer who has reasonably exhibited bias to sit in a matter would be in violation of the constitutional guarantee of a fair trial by an independent and impartial court.
While dismissing Itumbi’s application, the magistrate said that the blogger failed to explain how he accessed the information or documents in his affidavits that he intended to use against Matiang'i.
"His affidavit doesn't contain information on whether he had permission to use the public documents and when and how he obtained them," Ogoti ruled.
"By not describing how he obtained it, it cannot be used. He ought to have explained how he obtained the public and private documents," he added.
