Mombasa Magistrate Edgar Kagoni (pictured) was on Monday released on a Sh100,000 with the surety of the same amount with an alternative of Sh 20,000 cash bail/FILE – COURTESY
MOMBASA, Kenya, Sep 9 – A High Court sitting in Mombasa has ordered the immediate release of Mombasa Magistrate Edgar Kagoni, who was arrested on Saturday over allegations of mishandling Sh30 million Heroin exhibits.
He was on Monday released on a Sh100,000 with the surety of the same amount with an alternative of Sh 20,000 cash bail.
Kagoni, through lawyer Nelson Havi and others, had filed a petition stopping his prosecution saying the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) and the Director of Public Prosecutions want to embarrass and intimidate him.
In a petition, filed under certificate of urgency, Kagoni asked for conservatory orders stopping processing, or pressing of any criminal charges against him.
Kagoni, who was not present in court, was granted the conservatory orders.
Mombasa High Court Judge, Reuben Nyakundi, who heard the petition, said the suit filed by Kagoni met the threshold to be granted conservatory orders.
“In my view, this petition has met the threshold of conservatory orders against the respondents, it agents, its employees, in processing, preferring any criminal charge against the petitioner, pending inter parties hearing of this matter, which I have set at very high priority that inter-parties must be heard on 12 September 2019,” said Justice Nyakundi.
He said the Kagoni must be released wherever he is within the borders of the country.
“I have also granted the petitioner bail, wherever he is within the borders of this country to be released on bond of Sh100,000 with the surety of the same amount. I have issued an alternative that the petitioner can deposit is a cash bail of Sh20,000,” he said.
Mombasa High Court Judge, Reuben Nyakundi (pictured), who heard the petition, said the suit filed by Kagoni met the threshold to be granted conservatory orders/CFM
Kagoni, who was being held at the Port Police Station Mombasa, for mishandling 10 kilograms of Heroin and Sh600,000 found from a drug trafficker, is said to have been transferred to Nairobi.
He said there is no evidence to support the allegations levelled against him.
According to police sources, Kagoni was taken away from Port Police on early Monday morning and taken to Moi International Airport to be transferee to Nairobi.
In the matter, criminal case NO. 468 of 2018, which was concluded in June last year, Karogi had convicted Hussein Massoud Eid to a 30-year prison term.
Kagoni, however, asked the prosecution to return the Sh600,000 found on the suspect.
On August 8, 2018, Mombasa Chief Magistrate Evans Makori, wrote to the DCI to probe the reports that the Heroin exhibit and the Sh600,000 had gone missing from the court store between June 28 and July 26.
The DCI’s investigation found Kagoni and three other court officers should be held responsible for the disappearance of the drugs and the money.
The trio are; Abdalla Awadh Abubakar, who is an executive assistant at the Mombasa Law Courts, Lawrence Thoya Bayan, a support staff at the court and Onesmus Momanyi, a court assistant who was initially based in Mombasa, but has since been transferred to Ruiru Law Courts.
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