Elachi loses bid to stop contempt of court case

Nairobi County Assembly Speaker Beatrice Elachi risks being jailed for contempt of court after her objection to a case filed against her was dismissed.

The Labour court on Friday directed the case filed against her by Nairobi County Assembly Clerk Jacob Ngwele be heard on January 21.

Justice Onesmus Makau dismissed the preliminary objection raised by Ms Elachi. She had said the case was started against her wrongly.

Allowing the contempt of court case to proceed, Justice Makau said the “case by Mr Ngwele was properly filed and should proceed for hearing and determination.”

In the case, Mr Ngwele is seeking to have Ms Elachi committed to jail for defying a court order lifting his suspension from duty.

But Elachi’s lawyer had urged the judge to dismiss the contempt case by Ngwele alleging it is defective as it was filed under the wrong rules and “it was only fit for dismissal.”

The lawyer said the application by Ngwele did not adhere to the law since as it was filed as a Notice of Notion instead of an Application Notice.

He had also contended that the application was not personally served on Elachi as required under the law and that the Attorney-General should have been named as a party then served with the application.

In his ruling, the judge said the contempt case was properly filed in court and should proceed to full hearing.