Igonga defends bid to withdraw of case between two ex-lovers
His lawyer says the media misrepresented facts as case is still active, DPP to demand retraction
The Director of Public Prosecutions Renson Igonga says he made an independent decision on February 26 this year to seek the withdraw of a case involving two ex-lovers after reviewing and assessing the facts, which led him to conclude it amounted to an abuse of the court process.
In his response to a petition for his removal filed with the Public Service Commission (PSC) by Hussein Aila on Wednesday requesting it to declare him unfit to hold the position on grounds of gross misconduct and incompetence, Igonga, through lawyers Danstan Omari and Shadrack Wambui , accused the petitioner of seeking to mislead the PSC to remove him from office.
“It is alleged that the independent decision has been made in violation of the Constitution,” Wambui said.
He referred to Article 157 of the Constitution which prescribes the powers and functions of the DPP to institute charges and the power of terminating the criminal charges.
Wambui said the decision is not a function made independently but it is done after the court has authorised, adding that the decision to charge or to terminate criminal proceedings is made pursuant to evidential test or the public interest test.
On his part, Omari said they have been instructed by the DPP to do a demand letter to two media houses for carrying a story that was not factual to retract the wrong information given to the public.
Omari stated that the case E222/2023 at the Milimani magistrate’s court has not be withdrawn following the dismissal by court of the application to withdraw by the DPP with the magistrate directing that the matter proceeds expeditiously without delay.
“The hearing of the matter was scheduled for hearing on May 27, 2025. It was factually wrong as reported by the two newspapers to say the matter has been withdrawn,” Omari said.
He added that the said case involves a love affair between a husband and wife and to preserve public rights the DPP decided to withdraw the matter.
Omari said that the DPP had requested the withdrawal since the matter has been litigated at the Court of Appeal as a civil matter.
Further the lawyer added that the Office of the DPP produces a report in parliament annually citing among the requirements being the number of cases he has filed and the number of cases withdrawn.
He noted that in the year 2020-2021, the DPP charged 477,572 people and at the same time sought to withdraw 2,572 cases.
“To date as the analysis is still carried on, more than a 1000 cases have been withdrawn,” he said.
He concluded that this analysis had been produced and debated in Parliament and has been adopted.
In the case in question, Farida Idris Mohammed is accused of sending several threatening messages to Aila on June 14, 2023 and on June 15, 2019. The two lived as husband and wife.
