The High Court has set aside the conviction, and the six-month sentence issued to Deputy Inspector General of Police Gilbert Masengeli after he was found guilty of contempt of court. Justice Lawrence Mugambi in his ruling found that the court had confirmed and was satisfied that Masengeli had regretted and was genuinely remorseful of his actions in the court.....CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
Additionally, Justice Mugambi declared that he recused himself from the case for some personal reasons well known to him. “The intention of the court was not to punish Masengeli for the sake of it but to ensure that the sentence restores the dignity and the authority of this court. Masengeli was cross-examined by advocates and my observation is that his answers appeared genuine.
This court is convinced that Masengeli regrets and is generally remorseful for the situation he finds himself in,” Justice Mugambi ruled. “Masengeli through this purging process has purged his guilt for contempt of court & thus both the conviction and sentence passed are set aside. I am making my decision to recuse myself from further proceedings of this case for personal reasons.”
This comes hours after Justice Mugambi of the Milimani Law Courts on Friday, September 20 allowed the former Acting Inspector General of Police to redeem himself after he was sentenced to six months in prison.
At the High Court in Nairobi, the Judge thus suspended the sentencing of Masengeli, which was to start today, by seven days and granted the Deputy Police IG the opportunity to apologise and explain skipping summons by up to seven times.
Masengeli was represented by Attorney General Dorcas Oduor and lawyer Steve Ogolla. Before the adjournment, Masengeli had begun to defend himself by arguing that his priority was protecting the country’s borders.
The case which attracted public attention was lodged by the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) which sought the court to compel the police IG to release the three Kitengela abductees, Bob Njagi, Jamil Longton and his brother Aslam Longton.
Justice Lawrence Mugambi issued the ruling on September 13, 2024, which sentenced Masengeli to six months in prison, stating that the deputy police boss could avoid imprisonment by appearing in court within seven days to address the issues he had neglected.
On September 20, 2024, Masengeli submitted an affidavit to the High Court, apologizing for his previous absences and acknowledging his contempt of court.
In the affidavit, he expressed remorse for not attending court hearings related to the disappearance of three individuals, citing operational challenges in security operations as the reason for his absence.
Earlier on Friday, in his defence, AG Oduor cited numerous assignments that Masengeli was engaged in at the time the summons was issued, assignments she argued were matters of national security that could not be left unattended.
“When orders of August 26th were served on August 29th, Mr Masengeli, as the acting IG, was in Lamu for official duties. When the matter was mentioned on September 5th, he was still engaged in security operations in the Coast region. On the 13th of September, when he was sentenced for contempt of court, he was in Marsabit County coordinating security operations,” she revealed.
“It has been wildly but incorrectly alleged that the summons issued by the court were either ignored or defied by Gilbert Masengeli. This is further from the truth because every time his attendance was required, he was disabled from doing so by pressing exigencies of duty out of Nairobi…CLICK HERE FOR MORE ARTICLE>>>
