Waiganjo cleared of fraud charge

Jailed police imposter Joshua Waiganjo was on Monday acquitted in a fraud case that was pending before a Nairobi court.

Mr Waiganjo was set free “unconditionally” after a key prosecution witness failed to turn up in court to testify.

The prosecution wanted Mr Waiganjo to be released under a clause that would allow the police to re-arrest him, but his lawyer, Cliff Ombeta, objected, saying the track record spoke for itself.

Mr Ombeta said the history of the case showed the prosecution and, by extension, the complainant in the case, Mr Eric Mokua, had lost interest.

A magistrate ordered the file closed after the prosecution withdrew its case for lack of a witness.

In the case, Mr Mokua claimed that Mr Waiganjo conned him of Sh650,000 by falsely pretending he would sell him three unregistered motor vehicles from the port of Mombasa

NUMEROUS SUMMONS

Mr Mokua had been summoned numerous times to testify in court since 2011, but he never turned up, forcing successive adjournments.

Last week, another case of fraud was withdrawn against Mr Waiganjo after the complainant, Joshua Kogi, said the two had struck an out-of-court settlement.

Mr Kogi had complained that Mr Waiganjo stole a Nissan matatu from him in Nairobi after posing as a police officer. He told the court that he had since recovered the stolen vehicle and had been compensated for the loss.

On Monday, lawyer Ombeta demanded that the court take judicial notice of the failure of the witness to show up in court for the proceedings.

Senior principal magistrate Lucy Mbugua, who had given the prosecution a “last adjournment” three months ago when the trail similarly aborted, acknowledged that the record showed that the witness was unwilling to testify.

She declined to grant the prosecution its request to release Mr Waiganjo under section 87(a) of the criminal penal code, which would allow the police to re-arrest him and charge him with the same offence should the witness show up.

LACK OF EVIDENCE

“The complainant has not been in court since January 2012… at one time he was reportedly attending a swearing in of a certain governor and would not give the court priority, another time he was said to be present but disappeared before the case was called up for hearing,” Ms Mbugua said in her ruling before setting Mr Waiganjo free.

She concurred with Mr Ombeta that the prosecution had sufficient time to put its house in order by securing the attendance of the witness and subsequently turned down the request for the conditional release under section 87(a).

She thus released Mr Waiganjo under section 210 for lack of evidence.

The magistrate also ordered that the bond Mr Waiganjo had deposited in court and the surety be given back.

Mr Waiganjo is serving a prison term in a separate conviction for impersonation.

A case is still pending at the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi that roped him together with two former police bosses, John Mbijiwe and Remy Ngugi, who are accused of allowing him to masquerade among their ranks.