Today’s Court Update
#25. June 10th, 2024 (Mention): The court has set a hearing date of July 18th.
Case Overview
On July 31st, 2022, at approximately 18:00 hrs in the area of Mogunga town, Kisii County, were found dealing in 4 pieces of elephant tusks weighing 26.5 kg and concealed in a yellow water jerry can. Mogunga is located in the south west corner of Kenya approximately 50 km from the Tanzanian border and in the vicinity of Masa Mara National Reserve. (see map below)
Presiding Magistrate and Court: Hon. Boaz M. Ombewa – Senior Principal Magistrate | |
State Counsel: Machira | Advocates for the Accused: Omao |
Accused: John Nyabuto Mosago Andrew Maina Maenda, Henry Nyabuto Ongaki Peter Babu Onduso | |
Charges: PWT 92(2) – were jointly found dealing in wildlife trophies to wit four pieces of elephant tusks weighing 26.5 kg, concealed in a yellow cut water jerrican and placed inside a sack. | |
Date of Arrest: 2022-07-31 | Date of Arraignment: 2022-08-01 |
Location of Arrest: Mogunga, Kisii | Contraband Seized: 26.5 kg ivory |
Proceedings
#24. May 28th, 2024 (Mention): It is not clear what exactly is happening with this case. For the 4th straight sitting, the 4th accused has not appeared and he is in prison. Today there were no accused at all and no defence counsel. The court has simply set another mention date for June 10th and will issue yet another production order for the courts to produce the 4th accused again.
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#23. May 14th, 2024 (Mention): The matter today was coming up for mention to confirm attendance of 4th accused. The fourth accused is still in custody but has not been produced for court from prison for the last 3 appearances despite the issuance of production orders. He was not in attendance today. The prosecution has requested for a summons to be issued through the IO. Next court date for May 28th.
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#22. May 8th, 2024 (Mention): Another Mention date set for May 14th, 2024. (SEEJ-AFRICA not in attendance)
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#21. May 2nd, 2024 (Mention): Mention date set for May 8th, 2024. (SEEJ-AFRICA not in attendance).
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#20. April 26th, 2024 (Mention): Mention date set for May 2nd, 2024. (SEEJ-AFRICA not in attendance)
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#19. April 19th, 2024 (Hearing): The court set a mention date of April 26th, 2024. (SEEJ-AFRICA not in attendance)
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#18. March 12th, 2024 (Hearing): Today’s hearing did take place but with only one of the three witnesses available. All relevant persons present with one of the accused (in custody) appearing virtually. Today’s witness was a KWS cyber crime officer. He testified that on August 2nd, 2022, he received an exhibit memo with five mobile phones. All the phones are exhibits in court. As a cyber crime expert, it was his responsibility to extract information on call logs, sms, images and any other information for the period between July 1st to 31st, 2022 (30 day period prior to arrest)
On March 23rd, 2023, he extracted all data from three of the phones. The two other phones were not supported by his system. He completed his final analysis on July 24th, 2023 and prepared a report.
On cross examination, it was noted that there was a typo on page 8. The defence advocate argued that the veracity of the report should be doubted as a result.
The hearing could not continue as counsel for the accused had to depart for a funeral.
Hearing adjourned to April 19th.
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#17. January 31st, 2024 (Mention): Today’s mention took place with the accused excused attendance. The next hearing date was confirmed for March 12th, 2024.
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#16. December 5th, 2023 (Hearing): This hearing did not take place. All relevant persons were in attendance except prosecution witnesses. The prosecutor did mention that the Museum witness may be recalled. His testimony at the last hearing was in error as he had been relying on a report from another ivory seizure in Machakos. The matter was adjourned for a virtual mention on January 31st over a seized phone that has not been returned to an accused and a next hearing date of March 12th.
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#15. September 11th, 2023 (Hearing): Four prosecution witnesses were scheduled for today. There was an initial delay when the defence advocate, Omao, stated that he did not have the four witness statements which turn out that he was only missing one. It was agreed that 3 witnesses would testify.
The first witness was Dr. Ogeto Mwebi of the National Museum of Kenya. He has testified on countless occasions before the courts relating to the authenticity of ivory exhibits. Today he did the same. However, defence counsel discovered that the report of Dr. Mwebi was actually to a seizure of ivory of the same quantity but from a different incident in the Machakos area.
The error was acknowledged by the prosecution.
Mr. Omao argued that with the confusion before the court arising from the witness statements and incorrect ivory report, that both sides were clearly not ready to proceed. He requested the court to grant additional time for better preparation. Hon. Ombewa considering the unforeseen mishaps and acknowledging the need for a fair and well-prepared proceeding, agreed to the request.
The court adjourned and scheduled the next hearing for December 5th, 2023.
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#14. July 17th, 2023 (Hearing): Both prosecution and defence initially indicated that they were ready to proceed. However, Mr. Omao noted that he had not been served certain documents relating to upcoming witness testimony.
While the prosecutor insisted that the documents had been served, he could not prove service. The matter therefore did not proceed and prosecution was ordered to serve the said documents to defence.
Defence noted that as a result of the hearing not happening, travel costs be covered to reinburse the accused who had travelled all the way from Kisii. The hearing was adjourned to September 11th, 2023.
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#13. May 2nd, 2023 (Hearing): The case was coming up for hearing. One prosecution witness was heard. The next witness was absent citing reasons of the current demonstrations happening in Nairobi. {First attendance for SEEJ. This matter has been before the court on 12 occasions since arraignment on August 1st, 2022.
