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By Wangari Njuguna

Employees of Murang’a Water and Sanitation Company who were allegedly assaulted by the county government officials have expressed their displeasure over the court’s move to dismiss their case.

Through their lawyer Kiroko Ndegwa, the employees said move by resident magistrate Sheila Nyaga to acquit the accused persons of their charges was trampling on their justice.

Addressing the press in Murang’a on Sunday, Ndegwa said he is going to appeal the case in a higher court to ensure the justice for the victims prevail.

Unfair hearing

He claimed that since the inception of the case the victims were not given a fair hearing and the verdict was predictable.

“I made an application to bring on new evidence which could have helped in the case but it was rejected” he said.

“The magistrate made a negligious error and arrived at the wrong verdict which does not meet the standards as stipulated by the constitution” he said.

On Wednesday last week, the court cleared the charged against water CEC Paul Machari, Stephen Chege, Samuel Mwangi and Nicholas Karweru who had been accused of assaulting the workers and damaging property belonging to the company.

The ruling

The incident took place on 27th August 2018 when the governor Mwangi Wa Iria stormed into the facility after the company allegedly shut down the water supply.

The magistrate said the accused persons were not properly identified and the complaints also gave contradictory statements.

The advocate however said all the events were captured on camera and the suspects could clearly be identified and thus this could not be a basis of dismissing the case.

Francis Wainaina the chairman County government workers Union said the ruling has instilled fear among the workers.

“We were shocked that despite their being glaring evidence of what transpired the accused were set free as the court ruled that they have no case to answer” he said.

He urged the Director of Public Prosecution should review the matter and the case be heard afresh