A middle-aged man was on Friday acquainted by a court in Nakuru, after a complainant in the case pledged to pardon him and withdraw the case.
Joseph Kimani, 30 had appeared before Principal Resident Magistrate Loise Kimongoi charged with assaulting Hanah Mwihaki on January 10 this year, at Bunge Bar in Maili Sita in Bahati sub-county within Nakuru County, after she demanded payment of a Sh300 bill he had incurred.
The prosecution desk had told the court that the accused, acting out of malice had intentionally ordered for drinks and refused to settle the bill, when the complainant asked him to do so.
The magistrate had been told that the accused, who previously had indulged in a love affair with the complainant, acting out of malice and jealousy after finding her entertaining another man, had punched her several times on her head, before pushing her on a wall inside the drinking joint that resulted to the complainant sustaining serious injuries.
The complainant however, told the court to withdraw the charges against the accused, urging that she had been prevailed upon by family and friends to pardon the accused since they had been lovers for a long time, and still shared friendship as members of the same community.
“I am requesting the court to withdraw the charges against Mwaniki because I have been advised to pardon him. He is a long tome friend and a member of my community, I feel it will not be in order for me to subject him to suffering in jail,” Mwihaki told the court.