Former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Christian Health Association of Kenya Simiyu Makari, has filed a case at the High Court in Eldoret against the government for wrongfully imprisoning him for three years.
According to submissions made through his lawyer Francis Omenya, Makari has asked the court to award him Ksh5.9 billion as compensation for what he called malicious arrest, prosecution, conviction and sentence.
Additionally, the court papers indicated that the former CEO pleaded not guilty to the charge of stealing more than Ksh3 million from his former employer 41 years ago.
However, he was still convicted and sentenced to three years imprisonment.
He has filed the suit against the Attorney General Justin Muturi, Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome, and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Renson Ingonga.
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How the Former CEO was Convicted and Sentenced
Further, Makari lamented that he was handed a three year imprisonment after trial before the Senior Resident Magistrate’s Court in Nairobi who found him guilty of stealing the said amount.
He moved to the High Court in Nairobi to appeal the conviction, but the court dismissed his appeal and upheld the 3-year sentence.
Simiyu would later move to the Court of Appeal where a three-judge bench acquitted him of the charge of stealing in a judgment delivered on August 8, 1987.
According to the judges, there was no evidence to confirm the terms of employment of Simiyu in the service of his former employer, the Christian Health Association of Kenya.
Therefore, they could not tell the money Simiyu was entitled to and whether or not he could authorize payments or sign cheques.
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The judges included the late Justice James Nyarangi, H G Platt and J M Gachuhi.
“Some search evidence was necessary to prove that the appellant had no claim of right under section 268 (1) of the penal code. This case provides an excellent example of cautionary tale, the moral of which is: do not overload a prosecution with unnecessary material.
We find merit in the appeal which we allow, quash the conviction and set aside the sentence which unfortunately has already been served,” the court ruled then.
Although the former CEO was released from jail, he had already served his three-year sentence.
Previous Incident of Wrongful Conviction and Sentencing
In a separate incident, a 53-year-old man in 2016 sought justice after serving a five-year jail term in what turned out to be an unlawful conviction.
He narrated to the media that he had gone to the market in 2004 to repair his bicycle when police officers showed up at his doorstep accusing him of being a murder suspect.
Later, he was held at the police station and charged before the Mombasa High Court and served a five-year sentence before he was released for lack of enough evidence against him.
“They went to the church and told my wife that I should go to the police station immediately, which I did. When I asked them why they were looking for me, they instead detained me, saying I was a murder suspect.
I had been implicated in the murder of a man whom I treated as a father and I was shocked,” he narrated.
