The High Court has declined to suspend the four-month jail term facing Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) George Kinoti after he was found guilty for contempt of court.
Justice Mrima on Thursday, November 18 handed Kinoti a four-month jail term at Kamiti Maximum Prison for disobeying orders that required him to return firearms obtained from businessman Jimmy Wanjigi in 2017.
This is after Attorney General Kihara Kariuki filed an application seeking the suspension of the sentence and the imminent arrest of Kinoti until the hearing and determination of his application for setting aside the orders jailing Kinoti.
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Justice Murima ruled that AG’s application was filed a day to the lapse of the seven-day window granted for Kinoti to surrender to prison authorities with a view of starting to serve the sentence.
The AG in court papers filed through lawyer Cecil Miller argued that the DCI had no role in handling the firearms since the mandate falls under the Firearms Licencing Board.
“The DCI has since written to the Attorney-General instructing them to write to Mr Wanjigi’s advocates inform them to collect their firearms from the board. By doing so, the DCI has purged the contempt,” Kariuki says in court papers.
According to the AG, Wanjigi lawyers failed to disclose information indicating that they were directed to collect the firearms from the board.
He says if the information was availed to the court, Kinoti would have been absolved from the contempt of court offence.
DCI boss Kinoti is on record defending himself saying he can't produce the firearms because they are not in his possession.
“Even if the DCI is jailed for 100 years, he cannot give Wanjigi firearms he doesn’t have,” said Kinoti.
The hearing of AG Kihara's application is scheduled for Thursday, November 25, at 11:30 am.
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