Kidero, Shebesh not yet off the hook over feud

Nairobi County Governor Evans Kidero and Woman Representative Rachel Shebesh are not off the hook yet even after the out-of-court truce they hammered to shield themselves from being prosecuted. PHOTO/FILE

Nairobi County Governor Evans Kidero and Woman Representative Rachel Shebesh are not off the hook yet, even after the out-of-court truce they hammered to shield themselves from being prosecuted.

A court declared that the settlement the two leaders reached as a reconciliation “cannot bind the DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) unless he consents to such a settlement.”

A judge ruled that the reconciliation agreement between Mr Kidero and Ms Shebesh amounted to a “withdrawal” of the petition they launched challenging their prosecution and not a “settlement” of the case.

But Justice David Majanja dismissed a push for Kidero and Shebesh to pay the costs of the litigation that had been sought by the DPP and the Attorney General’s office.

Lawyers Cecil Miller and Tom Ojienda for Kidero and Shebesh respectively told the court the leaders had complied with the DPP’s demands that they revisit the police stations where they lodged complaints against each other and had “unreservedly withdrawn their complaints.”

They asked the court to mark the petition that had challenged the DPP as settled but the prosecuting counsel Kioko Kamula interjected saying the DPP was not a party to the agreement.

“The DPP has to be appraised of the status of this matter officially to make directions; we do not oppose their agreement, but to mark the matter as settled will be erroneous,” he said.

Mr Kioko added that the petitions were unnecessary as they would have struck the out-of- court agreement before the litigation started.

He said public expenditure had been committed in attending and defending the petition.

“It is the petitioners who have agreed among themselves,” Mr Kioko said.

The judge ruled that the agreement cannot bind the DPP but added he was not convinced on issuing the order for costs as the petitioners withdrew their cases at an early stage.