The widow and son of the late Cabinet Minister Mbiyu Koinange have urged a Nakuru Court to dismiss a case in which they have been charged with attempted murder.
Through their lawyer, Senior Counsel Paul Muite, they urged the court to issue stay against the decision by the Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) to file a record of appeal.
Muite raised constitutional issues where he noted that it was not right that his clients were subjected to murder charges and concurrently charged with attempted murder.
In light of the acquittal, he found it not right that the accused should be put through the same ordeal they went through in the murder case as the evidence and witnesses were similar in both matters. He justified that the burden of proof is similar in the attempted murder case thus it would be bad to subject the accused to ‘double tragedy’.
Muite faulted the DPP for been reluctant to proceed with matter pointing out that the court had vowed to give further directions irrespective of what the DPP has decided.
However, the office of the DPP could not respond to the submissions as there was no representative in court thus the Judge Janet Mulwa issued a date where both parties will argue on the said issues raised.
In the previous case, Eddah Wanjiru and David Njuno, family of the late Mbiyu Koinange were accused of murdering the late human rights activist Moses Mpoe but were acquitted after the state was unable to prove their case beyond reasonable doubt.
They faced other charges of the attempted murder of Joseph Mpoe, a brother to a deceased who was in his company during the incident.
Joseph Mpoe survived with gunshot wounds after a vehicle they were traveling in together with his later brother got ambushed by unknown assailants riding on a motor cycle along Soilo Junction along Nakuru Eldoret Highway as they drove to Nakuru.
Mpoe sustained serious bullet wounds to his neck, face and arm but survived the attack.
Wanjiru was charged on October 10 2010 with the two allegations of murder and attempted murder, which she denied and was released on a bond of Sh1 million. Four other people, among them a son to the late Koinange, David Njuno, were also charged with the same.
Njuno, Nicholas Ngetich, Johnston Kipkurui, Stephen Mwanzia and Musana ole Mbukoi denied killing the two and were released on Sh500, 000 bonds as the trial begun in December 2011.
The matter was slated for hearing on November 12.