High Court suspends prosecution of Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu

High Court judge Chacha Mwita has suspended the prosecution of Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu and lawyer Stanley Kiima until October 9 citing constitutional issues.

The Deputy Chief Justice through her lawyers led by Siaya Senator James Orengo argued that the charges of abuse of office, tax evasion and obtaining loan through false pretense from Imperial Bank were not of criminal nature.

Orengo opposed her taking of plea on the grounds that the charge sheet was defective and the reasons for her arrest wanting.

“We are going to demonstrate why the Director of Public Prosecutions, on this matter,  chose to use the  Director of Criminal Investigations  who turned out to be use-friendly instead of using the legal regime; the statutory  regime that relates to offences created under the Anti—Corruption Act,” argued Orengo.

Former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka was also in court to defend Justice Mwilu asked the court to block the plea taking of his client.

“I wish to concur with the very able submissions made by the Senior Counsel James Orengo because it goes to the core issue of integrity within the judiciary, including its independence.” Musyoka said.

In his ruling, Justice Chacha Mwita said there are constitutional issues to be addressed in the petition, especially on grounds that the matter was a commercial matter and whether it can lead to the arrest of a judge.