The High Court on Monday deferred the plea taking for businessman Chris Obure and his bodyguard Robert Bodo to Wednesday.
Obure and Obodo are suspects in the murder of Kevin Omwenga on August 21.
Obure’s lawyers opposed his taking a plea because there is an application before a court to stop him from pleading to the murder charge.
Lawyer Danstan Omari told Justice Mumbi Ngugi via video link that they needed to argue the application in court first before their client could plead.
Omari said once Obure takes plea he will automatically become an accused person and not a suspect. That would be unfair to him if his application is not heard, he said.
The prosecution told the court that they were ready to take the plea for Bodo who is the first accused.
Judge Ngugi allowed the deferment of the plea until Wednesday for both suspects.
She said it would be prejudicial for Bodo to take plea alone since it was a joint charge.
The judge directed the lawyers to serve the application to all the parties and appear before the court on Tuesday morning for hearing of the application.
In the application filed in court, Obure says he would serve better as a state witness rather than an accused person.
Obure argues that his intended prosecution and criminal proceedings are malicious, unlawful and an abuse of the court process.
“It is therefore unreasonable in the circumstances to charge the applicant for the offence of murder while the facts demonstrate that he would better serve the interest of justice as a witness to the facts leading to the untimely and sudden death of the deceased,” the application reads.
He wants the court to quash the decision by the DPP to charge him with murder.
Obure says he has cooperated with the investigating officers in the case.
For instance, he says, on August 30 he allowed officers from the DCI to obtain the CCTV footage of his office to help uncover the mystery behind Omwenga's murder.
“The CCTV footage shows Bodo breaking into my office and retrieving my firearm from its safe. Moreover, the CCTV captures him breaking in again and returning the gun that was allegedly used in the murder of Omwenga,” the application reads.
Obure says while his gun was used, he had nothing to do with the killing of Omwenga.
Obure and Bodo have been in custody for 14 days after the court allowed the police to detain them for 12 days as police concluded investigations.
On Friday last week, they appeared before a Kibera court where the prosecution told the court that they had completed investigations and preferred murder charges against the two.
