The High Court on Monday, November 22, dismissed a case challenging the sentencing of the Director of Criminal Investigation (DCI) George Kinoti to a four-month jail term at Kamiti Maximum Prison.
While delivering the verdict of Wednesday, November 22, Justice Antony Kimani of the judicial review division stated that the case had been filed irregularly after Kinoti refuted any knowledge of the suit.
Additionally, the judge issued orders for city lawyer Calvin Koome to be investigated by the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) and the DCI over allegations of forgery and impersonation.
"This court leaves the issue of misconduct and criminal activity in the hands of LSK and the investigative agencies," the judge directed.
The orders were made after Koome confirmed to the court that he filed the petition without receiving instructions from Kinoti. In his defence, the lawyer explained that he filed the case after he received instructions from a proxy of the embattled security boss.
The advocate was also accused of filing the suit using the letterhead of another law firm that has also distanced itself from the matter.
The Owino McDowell & Co law firm explained that they did not authorise the lawyer to use their letterhead while filing the petition before the court.
In an interesting twist of events, Kinoti and Attorney General Kihara Kinoti, through their lawyers, revealed to the court that the matter was under investigation with the security agencies treating the matter as an incident of fraud.
"I have instructions from the AG that what happened on Friday is a fraud and the two lawyers ( lawyers Koome and Owino who appeared for Owino McDowell co.Advocates) appearing before you are under investigation," Mwangi revealed.
The orders by the judge barely come days after the DCI distanced itself from the petition stating that the case was filed without the knowledge of the DCI boss.
"It has come to the attention of the Director of Criminal Investigations that a case namely HCJR 163/2021 has been filed on his behalf and the same is on the cause list to be mentioned on Monday, November 22, at 2 pm before Justice Anthony Kimani Ndung’u, at the Milimani Law Courts."
"This is to make it very clear that the Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti, has not instructed anybody to file a suit on his behalf or on behalf of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations," the statement read in part.
Kinoti was sentenced to serve a jail term by High Court Judge Antony Mrima on Thursday, November 18, after he was found guilty of being in contempt of court in a case involving firearms of businessman cum politician Jimi Wanjigi.
