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Jowie fights ‘woman eater’ tag, wants Justice Wakiaga dismissed

Irungu who is in detention pending the hearing of the murder trial in June next year asked the JSC to institute disciplinary proceedings against Justice Wakiaga/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 16 – Joseph Irungu, alias Jowie, has written to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) seeking the dismissal of Justice James Wakiaga over what he terms as disparaging remarks the High Court Judge made while denying him bail last month.

Justice Wakiaga had labelled Irungu a “male version of a slay queen” on the basis of which finding he declined to admit him on bail on October 30.

Jowie is facing a murder trial alongside ex-fiancé, TV journalist Jacque Maribe, over the killing of Monica Kimani.

“The picture that emerges from the prosecution’s evidence and the pre-bail report of the first accused (Irungu) is that he is a male version of a slay queen which for lack of better terminology I will call a woman eater,” Justice Wakiaga had said.

“He was living in the house of the second accused (Maribe), driving her car with no known source of income since 2017 when he provided security to some Jubilee Party politicians,” the judge went on to explain.

In a letter dated November 5, Irungu however took issue with Justice Wakiaga’s description of his person saying the comment demeaned the female gender as mere items that can be ‘eaten.’

Irungu who is in detention pending the hearing of the murder trial in June next year asked the JSC to institute disciplinary proceedings against Justice Wakiaga with a view of finding him unfit to serve as a judge.

“By describing me as a woman eater, he abused his position and compounded the female gender to be nothing less than items to be eaten which is quiet foul and degrading coming from a judge,” he wrote.

“A judge in exercise of his/her duties should not by words or conduct show bias or prejudice towards any person on irrelevant grounds,” Irungu stated in the letter addressed to the Chief Judiciary Registrar.

Irungu and Maribe were charged on October 15 before Justice Jessie Lessit with the murder of Monica Kimani, a businesswoman found dead at her Lamuria Gardens Apartment in Kilimani on September 19.

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The two denied the murder charge consequently applying for release on bail on October 24.

While ruling on the two applications, Justice Wakiaga declined Irungu’s plea for bail citing lack of a known residential address other than Maribe’s house which the police had cordoned for further investigations.

“Whereas the first accused (Irungu) has indicated that his siblings are likely to find him an alternative accommodation, there’s no evidence placed before this court to support this proposition,” Justice Wakiaga outlined.

“The first accused has no known assets in the country say for an intention to set up a private security firm. I therefore find him to be with not fixed aboard, lacking any deep emotional occupation or family ties in the country and is likely to abscond should need arise,” he added.

Justice Wakiaga however released Maribe on a Sh2 million surety bail with an alternative of a Sh1 million cash bail with three sureties of a similar amount after a month-long incarceration.

Maribe, through lawyer Katwa Kigen, had distanced herself from Irungu saying she was not aware of his whereabouts on the night Monica was murdered.

In a 35-point affidavit sworn on October 16, Maribe deponed that she was just Irungu’s lover at the time the crime is said to have been committed wondering why she had been charged with Monica’s murder.

“Without a doubt, the 1st accused (Irungu) was my fiancé. In the circumstances, I definitely communicated with him. It is most unfair to use the communication between me and the 1st accused in the given circumstances of our then existing relationship as a reason to withhold bail,” she argued.

Maribe told the court she believed the only reason she was standing trial for the murder of Monica was because “I was in a love relationship with a person the prosecution have an interest in.”

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She stated that the prosecution had neither witness accounts nor forensic material associating her either directly or indirectly with the murder of Monica, a person she insisted she had no knowledge of.

“I had no motive to kill the deceased. I didn’t participate directly or indirectly in it. No motive is alleged with regard to me,” she stated.

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