In the ruling dated 25.7.2024 this court gave the following orders:
- The application is allowed and applicant be released from custody forthwith on the following conditions:
- The Applicant be and is granted a cash bail of Kshs. 200,000/- with 1 Kenyan Contact person.
- The Applicant to present himself in the presence of his advocate, if needed, for investigations before the investigator at an agreed date and or schedule.
- The investigations or processing should be completed within the next 60 days from today.
These orders were issued pursuant to the Application dated 28.6.2024, where the Applicant sought his release after being detained in custody for 30 days. He had earlier on been detained for some 21 days, after the Respondents obtained orders for some investigations which came to naught.
The history of this matter is that earlier on, the Applicant had several run ins with the law enforcers and he even ended up being deported and being declared an undesirable immigrant . He has challenged that decision elsewhere and needless to say that issue is not before me.
Back to the issues in this file. I note that even after my orders of 25TH July 2024 , the Applicant remained in custody and Hon. Justice F. W. Andayi had to intervene on 28.8.2024.
In my ruling IN July, I had given a time frame (60 days) within which the Respondents were to complete their investigations.
The respondents, in a blatant disregard of the orders, continued to detain the Applicant for another 30 days or so . Therefore from the time that the Respondents obtained the custodial orders for 21 days in Shanzu Law courts in APRIL 2024, they detained the Applicant for 80 days with no , no charges ,no deportation, no investigations, no nothing.
The 60 days I had given came and went. The time should have expired end of September 2024. Since the release, again we have no action by the respondents.
In the current application when he sought for the release of the cash bail, the game of Musical chairs began. No, it is the Attorney General, no, it is the Immigration, no the Investigating officer, no the Director Public Prosecutions, no Kilimani police station, or is it MTWAPA TO blame . or perhaps the court?.
We mentioned the matter 4 times, in court and there was no response, no headway.
I need not describe the obvious. This is an abuse of the due process. Like I earlier said, all the Agencies involved can carry out their mandate but within the constitutional and internationally allowed standards .
Accordingly I find that the Respondents have had more than enough time since he was first detained 24.6.2024. to investigate or carry out any other action that needed to be done. There is no reason why his cash-bail should be retained anymore.
The application is hereby allowed and the cash-bill of Kshs. 200,000/- be refunded to the depositor.
HON. LADY JUSTICE WENDY KAGENDO
DATED, SIGNED AND DELIVERED ON THIS …13th…………..DAY OF FEBRUARY, 2025.
In the presence of
MR NGIRI FOR RESPONDENTS
MS MAUREEN COURT ASSISTANT
APPLICANT ABSENT