The Office of the DPP has suffered a blow yet again as the High Court ordered it to release former Sports CS Rashid Echesa's Range Rover and two firearms.
DPP Noordin Haji had moved to the High Court to appeal the ruling of the magistrate issued last month ordering his office to give Echesa back his car and two guns.
However, Justice Luka Kimaru on Wednesday dismissed the appeal by the state, ruling that it lacks merit.
The DPP was aggrieved by the decision of Senior Principal Magistrate Kenneth Cheruiyot on June 4 directing police to release two firearms and a Range Rover to Echesa.
“The court upon evaluating the facts of this application, formed the view that the magistrate did not err in law when he ordered the police to release the said property to Echesa,” Kimaru ruled.
The judge said the continued detention of the said firearms by the police is in contempt of the orders issued by a Kakamega court and the DPP did not dispute the existence of that order.
“The DPP or the police can make appropriate application before that court to set aside the order but so long as that order is still in force, the police have no option but to comply with the same and release the firearms to Echesa,” he ruled.
The court ruled that there is no legal justification for the continued detention of the said vehicle and the same should therefore be returned to Echesa without further ado.
Kimaru further said that Echesa had produced an affidavit from the person whom he bought the car from and she confirmed that he bought the car from her and has paid for it in full.
Echesa was charged in February this year with six counts of making a false document in the Sh39.5 billion fake arms deal among other offences.
