Igembe South MP John Paul Mwirigi has written to Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji asking him to recall and withdraw charges against him.
Mwirigi, who is facing two criminal counts informed the court that after perusing prosecution witnesses' statements, he finds the charges ill-intended to tarnish his name.
On November 27 last year, he was arraigned for obstructing a police officer on duty and for aiding a prisoner, who was in custody, to escape.
In a letter seen by the Star dated May 5, Mwirigi says the charges were motivated by witch-hunt and are meant to embarrass and intimidate him.
From the statements to the DPP, the legislator left the scene and there was a confrontation between officers manning a roadblock and members of the public before he was arrested that the evening.
The case, however, failed to proceed for the second time. Mwirigi, who is represented by Makueni Town MP Dan Maanzo and Peter Kaimba told Meru chief magistrate Hannah Ndung’u, that the DPP is yet to respond.
“It is our submission that the investigations were ostensibly carried out with malice and with much publicity in order to embarrass the honorable member after he refused to be cowed by officers who had been harassing motorists on the road asking for bribes," the letter authored by Kaimba said.
"The honorable member can’t be expected to carry criminal responsibilities on behalf of the members of the public for and offense which happened when he had left the area.’’
The case had been pushed to Monday on February 25 after the defense told the court they were unable to proceed because they had not been supplied with prosecution documents.
State counsel Claire Mureithi did not oppose the application for the matter to be deferred, saying she had received the letter. She said she will proceed once all the issues raised in the letter are addressed.
Mwirigi vied as an independent candidate and became Kenya’s youngest MP a at 23 years.
The case will be heard on August 5.
