State frees leader Mungiki Maina Njenga
The State on Friday dropped murder charges against Mungiki leader Maina Njenga.
The Attorney General, through state counsel Charles Orinda, terminated the case through nolle prosequi against Mr Njenga and 20 other suspects who face 29 counts of murder.
“I received a communication yesterday from the director of public prosecutions relaying Attorney General’s intentions to have this matter terminated,” Mr Orinda told Mr Justice Joseph Sergon.
Mr Orinda said section 82 (i) of the Criminal Procedure Code gives the AG the authority to terminate any criminal proceedings.
Mr Njenga’s lawyer Robert Asembo and other defence lawyers did not oppose to the application.
This comes only a day after Mr Justice Sergon ruled that Mr Njenga should plead to the murder charges against him. While his three co-accused returned a plea of ‘not guilty’ Mr Njenga chose to remain quite.
The discharge means that a constitutional reference that he had filed in the High Court in Nairobi challenging the legality of the murder charges has been overtaken the event.
Senior counsel Paul Muite, who is among a team of lawyers representing Mr Njenga, told the Nation they will withdraw the application.
The sect leader had been charged in connection with the Mathira massacre in which 29 people were brutally murdered in a revenge attack by alleged Mungiki followers on April 20.
