Ex-PC loses bid to stop magistrate from hearing Sh1.3bn land fraud case

Former Nairobi Provincial Commissioner Davis Nathan Chelogoi has suffered a major setback in his bid to stop the trial magistrate from continuing to hear and determine the Sh1.3 billion Lower Kabete land fraud case.

Milimani High Court Judge Alexander Muteti dismissed Chelogoi’s application seeking to disqualify Chief Magistrate Dolphina Alego from concluding his case following her transfer to the Employment and Labour Relations Court.

Justice Muteti ruled that Alego did not lose her criminal jurisdiction merely because she was deployed to the Labour Court, saying that she remained a magistrate under the Magistrates’ Courts Act.

The judge further upheld the decision by Nairobi Chief Magistrate Lucas Onyina to return the case to Alego, saying it was proper considering the advanced stage the proceedings had reached.

“The deployment of a Magistrate from the mainstream Magistrates Courts to the courts that are subordinate to the courts of Equal Status does not divest such a judicial officer of the jurisdiction acquired at the time of appointment as a judicial officer,” Justice Muteti ruled.

Chelogoi had argued that once Alego was transferred, she could no longer hear the criminal proceedings and that Chief Magistrate Onyina erred by returning the file to her instead of assigning it to Senior Principal Magistrate Rose Ndombi, who had briefly taken over the matter.

Justice Muteti disagreed, finding that Onyina was within his power both judicially and administratively to return the matter to Alego, particularly because of the advanced stage the trial had reached.