• We cannot destroy a family in this manner. We are destroying Nyakundi’s family, his wife is longing for her husband - lawyers.
• Nyakundi is currently paying Sh6,000 daily for his separate accommodation, which they said was very expensive for him because he is not practicing at the moment.
Image: Stanley Njenga
Wife of lawyer Assa Nyakundi and their children have insisted he should go back to their Muthaiga house.
Three weeks ago, the court granted Nyakundi bail over the killing of his son, but ruled he should not to go to his house.
His lawyers, Danstan Omari, Dr John Khamniwa and Cliff Ombeta, on Friday informed trial magistrate Teresia Nyang'ena that Lydia Nyakundi and her children, who are key prosecution witnesses in the case, want Nyakundi back.
The lawyers said Lydia has accepted the situation and wants to reunite with her husband.
The lawyers produced receipts indicating that Nyakundi is paying Sh6,000 daily for his separate accommodation, which they said was very expensive for him because he is not practicing at the moment.
He was charged with manslaughter in what Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti believes was a result of bungled investigations.
The DPP is seeking to be allowed to enter a Nolle Prosequi in the manslaughter charge, and charge Nyakundi with murder.
Kinoti has since interdicted two senior investigating officers in the case and ordered a public inquiry into what he called a “major cover-up”.
But defence lawyers told the court that Lydia considered the death of her son an “accident”.
They said she carried out her own investigations and established that it was not murder and her husband is innocent.
"Lydia has actually admitted that was an accident and she has believed her husband. She has done her own investigations and discovered that it was an accident,” said the lawyers.
The lawyers argued that barring him from his family did not sit well with the victims, particularly the wife, “who has been in a holy union with the accused person for over four decades."
They said that the accused, who has been living in a rented apartment in Kilimani following the court order, should be allowed “to rejoin his lovely wife and children.
“What you (prosecution) are doing to Nyakundi is wicked, immoral and completely unacceptable. We cannot destroy a family in this manner. We are destroying Nyakundi’s family, his wife is longing for her husband,” said said lawyer Omari in his submission.
The lawyers said no woman in her senses, knowing or having any evidence that her husband is responsible for the death of her son, would want to have him back and share the same roof and bed.
"No woman would do such a thing. The woman in this particular case wants her husband back, the children want their father back,” they told the court and accused the DPP of acting recklessly.
The lawyers claimed that the DPP wanted the lawyer discharged so that they could have him rearrested, given the huge presence of police officers in court precincts.
But state prosecutor Catherine Mwaniki argued the claims were not in good faith, saying it was shocking that Nyakundi appeared uninterested in pursuing justice for her son even after new evidence indicated that the offence was not manslaughter.
She said Lydia was a witness who had already recorded a statement under Section 127 of the Evidence Act.