A court ruling in Ngong, Kajiado County, in which a magistrate ordered the return of suspected stolen household goods to an accused person after acquittal has sparked outrage.<\/p>\n
In a court order, Resident Magistrate J.M. Mulisho directed the Officer Commanding Station (OCS) at Oloolua Police Station to immediately release the accused, Cornel Onyango, and return to him household items earlier confiscated from his residence as exhibits.<\/p>\n
Onyango had been charged with breaking into a house belonging to the late Rhoda Wanjiku Gitau in January this year and stealing household goods valued at over Ksh 700,000.<\/p>\n
The ruling has drawn sharp criticism from members of the deceased\u2019s family, who argue that it sets a dangerous precedent, one in which suspects are freed and property linked to alleged crimes is returned, potentially emboldening criminal activity.<\/p>\n
David Kiarie, a complainant who is the son of the deceased, says he was shocked at the court\u2019s decision, as the matter was never heard and determined based on evidence that would have been presented to the court by witnesses.<\/p>\n
He said even more shocking was the court order to have the stolen items given back to the suspect, as there was incriminating evidence, which included CCTV footage.<\/p>\n
In the ruling dated April 14, 2026, the court discharged the suspect under Section 87 (a) of the Criminal Procedure Code and ordered that he be refunded his cash bail and the exhibits detained at the Oloolua police station be released to him forthwith.<\/p>\n
The ruling, it emerged, was made on the strength of a recommendation by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) which the complainant termed unfair.<\/p>\n
Addressing journalists, Kiarie explained how the video clips which were part of the prosecution\u2019s case against the accused, captured the break-in which occurred months after the demise of his mother who owned and lived in a rental flat in the area.<\/p>\n
The complainant now asks the Chief Justice Martha Koome to intervene and ensure justice is served and that the judiciary is not compromised by people who have no regard for the rule of law.<\/p>\n
Kiarie added that the suspect had gone to the police station in an attempt to repossess the exhibits but the OCS was not in to effect the court order.<\/p>\n
He, however, commended the police for doing their part only for the prosecution to disregard the effort and instigate a withdrawal of the case.<\/p>\n
The post Outrage after court orders freed suspect to keep stolen items<\/a> appeared first on KBC Digital<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A court ruling in Ngong, Kajiado County, in which a magistrate ordered the return of suspected stolen household goods to an accused person after acquittal has sparked outrage. In a court order, Resident Magistrate J.M. Mulisho directed the Officer Commanding Station (OCS) at Oloolua Police Station to immediately release the accused, Cornel Onyango, and return […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138508\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}