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The Court of Appeal has stopped prosecution of the late Cabinet minister Mbiyu Koinange’s widow, Eddah Wanjiru.

  Wanjiru (pictured)  was facing attempted murder charges instituted against her over 10 years ago. She was accused of attempting to kill Joseph Mpoe, a brother of Maasai land rights activist Moses Ole-Mpoe, who was murdered together with his friend Parsaaiya ole Kitu on December 3, 2010 at Soilo area in Nakuru county. She was charged with six other suspects over the offence.

In a judgment rendered by the Appellate Court, Judges Wanjiru Karanja, Asike Makhandia and Agnes Murgor stopped further prosecution of Wanjiru before the magistrate’s court in Nakuru, saying the charges are identical to the ones she was acquitted of by the High Court in 2014.

Move comes after Wanjiru, through her lawyer Paul Muite, lodged an appeal before the court protesting against the High Court decision that allowed the State to continue with her prosecution on the attempted murder charge, which was similar to the one she was acquitted of.

Muite had argued that it was unfair for the court to subject his client to a second trial for whose transactions, witnesses and evidence were identical to a case which she was freed.

While quashing the criminal case against Wanjiru, the judges concurred with her arguments that allowing the Director of Public Prosecution bid to proceed with the trial to its logical conclusion would amount to double jeopardy and an abuse of the court process.

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“It is clear to us that the Office of the DPP is litigating in piecemeal in a manner which is apparently meant to frustrate the appellants (Wanjiru and her co-accused) by keeping them in court indefinitely, notwithstanding the fact that the High Court acquitted them of the murder charges after full trial,” judges ruled

“Subjecting the appellants to another criminal trial where it is evident that there is no “snowball’s chance in hell” that a conviction will result is nothing short of abuse of court process,” they added.

According to the judges, if Wanjiru and her co-accused are to be tried for the attempted murder, they will be expected to face the same evidence they faced before the High Court, which they found deficient in trial.