Joshua Waiganjo finally a free man after court drops all charges
He was in 2013 arraigned in a Naivasha court and charged with impersonating senior police officers, robbery with violence, and being in possession of police uniforms.
A Naivasha court acquitted Joshua Waiganjo of all the charges of impersonation and possession of police uniforms that he had been charged with after the prosecution failed to prove their case.
Waiganjo was facing five charges of impersonation; however, the man, who hit the news headlines eleven years ago for impersonating senior police officers, is now free.
Waiganjo won the last battle after Naivasha Chief Magistrate Nathan Lutta acquitted him of all the charges.
At some point during the trial, the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) had made an application to withdraw the cases under Section 87(a) of the Penal Code, but Wainganjo opposed the application.
Section 87(a) provides that prosecutors withdraw a case against an accused person and reopen or resume the prosecution later.
Waiganjo rejected the ODPP's application under the section, which amounts to temporarily halting prosecution, and instead demanded full prosecution in order to exonerate himself of the charges and secure his acquittal.
The magistrate added that the accused chose a full trial over this, voicing concerns about potential future arrests for the same offenses.
Lutta noted that the accused had lodged an appeal in the case through the High Court in Naivasha but moved to the Court of Appeal in 2017 after he was dissatisfied with the outcome.
"The Court of Appeal, in its ruling, directed that the accused person be set free, and this court is bound by the doctrine of stare decisis (seniority of courts), and the accused is acquitted," Lutta stated.
Wainganjo was in 2013 arraigned in a Naivasha court and charged with impersonating senior police officers, robbery with violence, and being in possession of police uniforms.
The case, however, collapsed as some witnesses failed to appear in court and some of the evidence went missing as the case moved from one court to another.
He served five years in jail for impersonating a police officer, one year for donning a police uniform, and six months for each of the three charges of possessing government stores in 2015.
He appealed the ruling in the High Court, which ordered a retrial, before moving to the Court of Appeal in 2017, which in turn dismissed the case in totality.
The Court of Appeal noted that the order of a retrial by the High Court was not proper and lacked legal basis.
The ruling stated, "The learned judge did not file a cross-appeal against these orders, and we accept the appellant's application and order to set him at liberty immediately."
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