In January 2018, the International Centre of Policy and Conflict (ICPC) protested after Safaricom Chief Customer Officer Sylvia Wairimu Njuguna aka Mulinge (then Director of Consumer Business Unit) lodged a fresh bid at the high court in Nairobi to scuttle her prosecution for causing death by dangerous driving.
The case involved a 2015 traffic accident in which she was accused of causing the death of a minor along the Southern by-pass, Nairobi county, while driving her Toyota Prado KBY 483M on February 1 2015.
She appeased the child’s parents with a Sh950K payoff, the court was told.
A seeming delay in the prosecution of the matter prompted the ICPC, in 2018, to seek enjoinder in the case in which she is opposing her prosecution after the dead child’s spirit haunted the DPP to recall the file for further action.
ICPC interest in the case, lawyer Suyinka Lempaa, explained is to check the indolence and inaction experienced earlier, that may be revisited by the authorities who handled the case.
‘And for the sake of public interest’
Assistant Senior Deputy DPP Fredrick Ashimoshi asked justice George Odunga to allow ICPC to join the proceedings.
Frustrating prosecution, Settled matter out of court
Through lawyer Suyinka Lempaa, ICPC, claims there has been an apparent effort to frustrate prosecution of Wairimu alias Slyvia Mulinge.
A charge sheet that had been drafted after the fatal accident on February 1 2015 states that the woman drove her car dangerously and without consideration to other road users, by speeding, hence knocking down the angel who was crossing the road.
She had initially lodged an objection against her prosecution on grounds that she had settled the matter out of court, but in a fateful twist of events, as we Africans know about blood crying from the ground, the DPP recalled the file and made a recommendation that she can only make such arrangements after she has appeared and charged in a court of law!
“Going by evidence on record, it is evident that Wairimu ought to have been charged with causing death by dangerous driving contrary to Section 46 of the Traffic Act…an out of court settlement can only be arrived at after the accused is charged and any settlement for reconciliation, under Section 176 of the Criminal Procedure Code,” an affidavit signed by Paul K Leting of behalf of the DCI and filed in the fresh haunting reads.
Glaring evidence
Lempaa told justice George Odunga that police failed or neglected to take appropriate legal action in the matter, despite glaring evidence that a minor had been killed by the accused person carelessness.
The child’s blood, like the case of Abel and Cain, is crying for justice now.
“We expect that the law should apply to all Kenyans uniformly,” Lempaa said.
Court papers state that the evidence point at Wairimu’s driving, the woman also known as Sylvia Mulinge, had knocked down an 8 year old near Raila Slums in Kibera, Nairobi county and snuffed a promising talent.
The court heard that the suspect got into an out of court settlement with the parents of the child, Zachariah Etale Alwang’a and Caroline Nasike Nanjala, for the death of their daughter for which the parents received a paltry Sh950,000 as compensation.
Wairimu through lawyer Njoroge Regeru had opposed the enjoinder of ICPC in the case saying the matter had already been settled.
He arrogantly dismissed this pursuit of justice as “busybody.”
A ruling on the enjoinder was never made on January 22 2018 for justice to be served.
The case went cold.
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