Court of Appeal judge Sankale ole Kantai has found himself in a tight spot after his former driver made damning claims about his lifestyle and alleged attempts to intimidate witnesses in the Tob Cohen murder case.

Former police driver Jackson Masista claims Kantai, who is fighting to stop the Directorate of Criminal Investigations from charging him over the tycoon’s murder, has been threatening and intimidating State witnesses in the case, including himself.

Also roped into the alleged scheme to intimidate and harass witnesses are the judge’s brother James Sapuro and lawyer Peter Wanyama. 

Masista, a retired officer, claims Kantai, whom the DCI alleges is linked to the murder due to his alleged illicit affair with the late Cohen’s widow, Sarah Cohen, is a man of questionable character with a penchant for married women. Besides fighting to stop the DCI from charging him over the murder, Kantai also faces a probe by the Judiciary Service Commission following complaints by the State investigative agency and family of the late Cohen.

Recent past

In an affidavit filed before the High Court, Masista says Wanyama and Sapuro have tried blackmailing and even dissuaded him from volunteering any information related to murder of the late Dutch businessman to DCI.

“That in the recent past I have been receiving incessant calls from the advocate representing Justice Sankale ole Kantai, one Peter Wanyama via mobile number 0721884689 warning me against giving any information to DCI on any matter touching on Sankale and or making any disclosures to anybody on matters touching on the judge,” Masista says in court papers.

Masista  had been Sankale’s personal driver between 2015 and October 2018 before he retired.

The officer also reveals how on one occasion, Wanyama sent him messages through WhatsApp with an unknown number 0701951952 advising him to avoid communicating with him because their lines were being tapped or overhead by curious individuals, who were presumably DCI officers.

“That moreover, a brother of Justice Sankale whom I reasonably presume to be known as James Sapuro has been incessantly calling me via mobile number 0713343238 and dissuading me from honouring any summons or invitation from the DCI. He has expressed fears that in the event I honour the summons, I may share with the officers details of my personal experiences with Sankale,” Masista states.

Former driver of the judge also claims he has been forced to opt for another mobile telephone number due to the never ending calls that he has been receiving in the recent past from Wanyama and Kantai’s brother.  In the affidavit filed in the case where Sankale is challenging his prosecution over Cohen’s murder , Masista has also laid bare in court some of his memorable experiences with the judge during their interactions and escapades with women, some of them married.

Masista narrated to the court that on numerous occasions, he was tasked to pick up and drop some of Sankale’s female acquittances, who were not formally introduced to him. “Though I cannot vividly recall the dates and specific times, I can recall that at some point we spent three nights out with the judge and one of his female acquittances at Amboseli National Park. For the three nights we spent at Amboseli, Sankale was in the warm companion of his girlfriend,” Masista says.

He also cites another occasion when he drove Sankale and another different woman to Panari Hotel in Nyahururu, Nyandarua county where they spent two nights. He claims that was the practice.

Different occasions

On another different occasion, Masista says he drove the judge and another woman, different from the others that he had met before, to some fancy sport club cum hotel in Kisumu where they spent the weekend together.

“I verily recall my last experience with the judge and another woman from Migori whom I picked from Queensway Barclays Bank in Nairobi and drove her together with the judge all the way to Migori as they exchanged pleasantries from the back seat,” Masista says in court papers.

While interacting with security guards at the lady’s homestead as the judge and the woman had fun in her house, he was informed that some youth had assembled outside the compound in readiness to attack Sankale for allegedly having an affair with the married woman.

Officer says he quickly alerted Sankale of the lurking danger, before sneaking him out of the compound through the back exit that was unknown to the marauding crowd.