A police informer and the defence in the Willie Kimani murder trial suffered a major setback on Wednesday after the High Court declined to set aside its earlier orders allowing his confession.
Peter Ngugi, the fifth accused person in the case, had asked the court to review its earlier orders admitting his confession expected to detail the killings.
Four APs — Fredrick Leliman, Stephen Cheburet, Sylvia Wanjiku, Leonard Mwangi — and Ngugi were charged with the murders of Kimani, Josephat Mwenda and Joseph Muiruri on June 23, 2016.
In May, Justice Jessie Lessit allowed the prosecution to use the Ngugi's recorded confession.
In the confession, Ngugi allegedly narrates to police how the three victims — rights lawyer Kimani, his client and a taxi driver — were murdered by the four other accused persons.
However, in her decision on Wednesday, justice Lessit ruled that she cannot interfere with her own orders.
She directed them to appeal her ruling because she can't review her own orders
She said that her court cannot be told to check what had been ruled by her court in allowing the confession by Ngugi.
The judge cautioned parties not to file any further applications and allow the matter to proceed to their conclusion.
Justice Lessit said that the case has taken a long time and many applications have been made that have dragged on the trial since it began.
In the confession, Ngugi is said to give chilling details of how, where, what time and who took which part in the murders of the three men.
The confession by the police informer, who is also one of the accused, gives graphic details of exactly what happened from the time the victims were kidnapped as they left a Mavoko law court to the time they died.
The court has also allowed Ngugi's lawyer to recall two witnesses since he is a new lawyer and was not there when they testified.
Ngugi fired his lawyer and a new lawyer was assigned to him by the state, which had asked the court to allow him to recall only two witnesses out of the 37 who have testified.
(Edited by V. Graham)
