The High Court in Iten has quashed the five-year sentence imposed on Evans Kiplagat Kipkore, ruling that his plea of guilty to charges of conspiracy to defeat justice was flawed.
Justice Wananda Anuro ordered a
retrial, stating that the original plea-taking process failed to meet the legal
threshold.
The ruling, delivered on July 4,
2025, follows an appeal by Kipkore challenging a conviction entered against him
by the Iten Senior Principal Magistrate’s Court on August 14, 2024
Kipkore was accused of conspiring
with an accused person facing defilement charges at the Iten Law Courts.
He allegedly posed as the
complainant’s father and misled the court into believing that the case had been
resolved out of court.
Court records showed that he pleaded
guilty to the charge of conspiracy to defeat justice under Section 117 of the
Penal Code and was sentenced to five years imprisonment.
However, the High Court found that
the trial magistrate failed to ensure that the charge and facts were properly
explained to the accused in a language he understood.
“There is no indication from the
record that the Prosecutor read out to him the facts of the offence,” Justice
Anuro said.
Prosecution Counsel Racheal Mwangi
supported the appeal and acknowledged that the plea entered was equivocal.
She submitted that the trial court
violated Section 207(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code by not presenting the
facts before convicting Kipkore.
Instead, the prosecution had stated
that the “facts were as per charge sheet.”
“This Court is unable to satisfy
itself that the Appellant understood what he was pleading guilty to,” the Judge
said, ruling that the conviction could not stand.
In his handwritten submissions,
Kipkore argued that he had not intended to interfere with witnesses.
He claimed he was trying to promote
reconciliation between the parties, saying the defilement allegations were
fabricated.
He further told the court he was not
shown the charge sheet and was not given a chance to mitigate before
sentencing.
The judge noted that although the
trial was defective, it was not the fault of the prosecution.
He ruled that a retrial was
justified and in the interest of justice given the seriousness of the offence
and the short time that had passed since the incident.
The case was sent back to the Iten
Law Courts to begin afresh before a different magistrate. Kipkore is expected
to appear before the new court by Friday, July 11, 2025, to take a fresh plea.
“The
Appellant shall be escorted to the relevant Police Station for purposes of
preparing a fresh charge sheet and he should then be presented before the
relevant Magistrate’s Court at the Iten Law Courts
not later
than Friday, July 11 2025, for purposes of taking a fresh plea,” Justice
Anuro said.
“This is not a situation that would
result in prejudice to the Appellant. The interests of justice require that the
matter proceeds to its logical conclusion.”
The ruling also applies to two other
identical appeals Kipkore had filed under different case numbers.
All were marked as closed.
