High Court Judge James Wakiaga on Tuesday, July 14, announced that he was stepping down from hearing the murder case of former Kabete MP George Muchai.
A report by Daily Nation indicates that the judge explained that the five people accused in the case had reported him to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC).
He also explained that the environment made it difficult to have him conduct a meaningful trial after the accused complained about his behaviour and were pursuing him to be investigated over gross misconduct and incompetence.
The suspects included Raphael Kimani alias Kim Butcher, Kimani Anyonyi alias Musti, Stephen Lipapo alias Chokore and Erick Muyera alias Chairman.
Muchai was reportedly murdered in 2015 alongside his three aides.
The MP was shot dead at the Kenyatta Avenue-Uhuru Highway roundabout in Nairobi.
The four were in a vehicle ahead of another car that was carrying the deceased's family members that included his wife and daughter.
A relative, at the time, disclosed that the MP's vehicle had arrived at a roundabout when he was accosted bygun-wielding assailants who shot at them in the wee hours of the morning.
"They just started spraying it with bullets. When we saw that, our driver sped past the other car and when we came back to the scene a few minutes later, all the occupants of the vehicle were dead," the relative stated.
A newspaper vendor who witnessed the incident also corroborated the story indicating that one of the gunmen wore a mask.
In 2019, the suspects had urged the judge to step down from the case citing a lack of confidence in him.
"We are not satisfied with this court. We have lost confidence in it and we want the judge to disqualify himself for being biased," they stated.
Elsewhere, a case in which four suspects were accused of killing Dirib Kombo Chief Dida Gogana in December 2018 has been handed to a new judge, Anne Ong'injo.
Justice Francis Gikonyo recused himself from the case in March 2020.
