Court declines DPP’s request to have media barred from covering Governor Waiguru’s NYS testimony

The court has dismissed an application by the DPP to have the media barred from covering the testimony of the Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru.

Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi ruled that the application has no merit hence dismissed it.

This comes after the DPP, through Prosecutor Jalson Makori, made an application for the trial court to bar the media from covering the trial claiming that her testimony may be taken out of the context or misreported.

“In light of what you have said we have our witness and we are ready to process, because of space, our witness may take a bit of time due to our testimony, we are requesting that the court bar the media, reasons being that some of the testimony may be taken out of the context or misreported,” Makori said.

In response to the application by the DPP to bar the media, Judith Guserwa representing former PS Mangiti asked the court not to bar the media.

He also requested 10 days to go through the new witness statement from Waiguru.

“We have no control of what the media covers, the only thing that matters is our health there is no space, we reschedule this hearing to a time where we feel safe and we are healthy enough Makori has not told us that he has served us with a witness statement which we have not discussed with my client, I would require 10 days to prepare,” said Guserwa.

Lawyer Wandugi Kiraithe, representing the accused, claims the DPP has served them with 3 different witness statements from Governor Waiguru.

He asked the prosecution to give light on which one will be used in the trial.

Governor Waiguru is expected to testifying in Ksh791 million NYS criminal case against former PS Peter Mangiti, former Director General Nelson Githinji and 22 others.

The matter has been adjourned to August 5 since two accused persons namely Ben Gethi and Samuel Wachenje are not represented following the death of their lawyer.