Nyakundi blocks DCI bid to charge him with son’s murder
Prominent lawyer Assa Nyakundi who is accused of killing his son in March last year will not face a murder charge after Kiambu Senior Magistrate Teresia Nyangena ruled that the prosecution did not have any grounds to substitute the charges.
Nyakundi had been charged with a lesser charge of manslaughter but the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) sought to withdraw the charges and substitute it with murder.
However, the Kiambu magistrate yesterday ruled that the application were founded on weak grounds
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“In the premises I find that the powers of the DPP to discontinue criminal procceedings are not absolute and the application is founded on weak grounds and the same is disallowed,” Nyangena ruled.
Nyakundi had been accused of shooting dead his son, Mr Joseph Nyakundi, on March 17 last year inside their family car.
The magistrate said the case had been riddled by a lot of circus. “In as much as I would have wished to grant the application by the DPP to discontinue the current proceedings, in view of all the circus that has dominated the entire process since inception, I am of the view that the spirit of the law generally, and the Constitution in particular must be upheld not only for the sanctity of the judicial system but also for the interest of the public and posterity
According to lawyer Cliff Ombeta, one of the accused’s lawyers, the Prosecution can appeal the decision to the High Court, proceed the manslaughter charges or ultimately withdraw the charges completely.
According to the investigation report, the lawyer had claimed that as they were approaching their house in Muthaiga he stopped to change the position of his Glock pistol, serial number GUZ 52, from a pouch in the car to a holster, when he accidentally discharged.
Though investigators had ruled out accidental discharge, implying that the lawyer could have intentionally shot dead his son, the two investigators instead charged him at a Kiambu Law Court with manslaughter.
The DCI boss and the ODPP objected to the charge of manslaughter and said that the detectives never visited the actual scene of shooting nor sought the opinion of the ballistics expert before preferring the lesser charge of manslaughter.
This, the DCI said, was intentional and believed to have been aimed at defeating justice. After the lawyer was charged with a lesser charge of manslaughter in a Kiambu court, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on May 10 entered a nolle prosequi.
