Hearing of case against Maina Njenga starts in Nakuru

The case against politician Maina Njenga and 11 others commenced on Monday before the Nakuru Chief Magistrate’s court.

The matter started with accusations and counter-accusations from the defence lawyers who wanted the case dismissed for grave mistakes in the charge sheets and procedure or referred to the High Court for interpretation.

The five defence lawyers also claimed that there is a similar case against Maina Njenga before a court at the Makadara Law Courts and wanted the matters consolidated before the hearing started.

All the applications were dismissed by Chief Magistrate, Kipkurui Kibelion Who said the defence team did not prove any relationship between the matter in Nairobi and the one proceeding before him and the hearing had to start at about mid-day.

The prosecution is set to call 40 witnesses in cases where Njenga and 11 others are charged with various offences among them, being members of an outlawed sect, having firearms and preparing to commit a felony.

Njenga was charged with being a member of an unauthorised group namely Mungiki, having records relating to the the group and addressing an illegal meeting at his home in the Wanyoro area of Bahati Sub-County in Nakuru.

He is said to have committed the offences between May 11 and 12 together with 11 others not before court.

The first prosecution witness could not testify as she fainted in front of a fully packed court before she could even take the oath.

The second witness, a directorate of Criminal Investigations based in Nakuru North Sub-County, Police Constable Eric Wainaina narrated how a large team of police officers from three sub-counties raided Njenga’s home in Wanyororo.

“We arrested 8 people from the home in the early morning of May 12 and recovered different items among the Tokalev pistol, three rounds of ammunition, a toy gun, walking sticks, 98 rolls of bhang and one kilogram of snuff,” he said.

He added he was the man in charge of taking an inventory of all the items discovered at the home which included a military backpack belonging to the National Police Service.

He said the bhang was hidden under a bed in one of the bedrooms in the main house while the gun was in a drawer in the master bedroom.

During cross-examination by Lawyer Ndegwa Njiru, Wainaina was in pain to explain why some of the listed exhibits were not presented in court among them the toy gun and the said military backpack.

Njiru also wanted to know whether the alleged backpack belonged to the Military or the National Police Service because they were two different entities.

Also missing in court were some of the alleged walking sticking Mungiki records while the inventory had listed four notebooks yet those produced in court were six.

“Which ones of those notebooks were found at the scene of the crime and why did we have six in the sealed envelope that contained the exhibits,” wondered Njiru.

Lawyer Steve Biko wondered why some of the suspects were arrested at later dates and charged with the same offences as those at the scene yet there was no proof of communication.

He said there was no way the second accused person, Daudi Mwangi could have been the homestead’s caretaker and watchman yet be on the police’s list of people who were invited to the said illegal meeting.