The Director of Public Prosecution Keriako Tobiko has declined to a grant plea bargaining request to the murder suspect of KRA lawyer Jared Ratemo.
Tobiko decline to grant the request by David Muchiri, suspected of killing the KRA lawyer and directed the matter to proceed to full hearing.
S.A DPP Kemo takes over matter
The DPP has also appointed senior assistant prosecutor Aloise Kemo to take over the murder case from prosecutor Catherine Mwaniki.
“Kemo should take over the matter from Catherine Mwaniki and the matter should proceed to full hearing,” said Tobiko in a letter presented in court.
Through lawyer Danson Omari the family of the accused said they were satisfied with the directions of Tobiko but will still push to have the other suspects arrested.
Recently, prosecutor Catherine Mwaniki had requested the court to postpone the issue of plea bargaining.
Omari told Justice Jesse Lesiit that his clients were not satisfied with the level of investigations that were carried out by police.
“The family wants to push for the expansion of investigations to have all the suspects in the matter charged before the court of law,” said Omari
The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) had also objected to the plea bargaining on the grounds that the accused is part of a wider scheme to cover up the murder.
Omari said that the deceased was a Senior Lawyer who was murdered and his body dumped at Mombasa Road.
Muchiri pleaded not guilty to the charges and has since been remanded in custody.
According to him, the postmortem indicated that the lawyer was tortured before he died. The defense is yet to make an application for bail.
Judge Lessit directed the matter to be mentioned before Justice James Wakiaga who would fix a hearing date of the bail application.
The matter will be mentioned on 14th December.
