The Supreme Court today said the heads of the Director of Fraud and Anti-Corruption Directorate are not properly represented before the court in the appeal filed by former Police Commissioner Geoffrey Vaki.
A three-man Supreme Court bench upheld an objection by Vaki’s lawyers that Matthew Damaru and Timothy Gitua were not proper parties before the court as they require approval by the Attorney General to engage private counsels to represent them.
The court in its decision today found that the Director and Deputy Director of Fraud and Anti- Corruption Directorate, Damaru and Gitua, cannot declare something contrary to what has been implied in a previous judicial determination – the Marape appeal case decision on Feb 24.
Justice Derek Hartshorn, in delivering the decision of the full court today, upheld the objection raised by Vaki’s lawyers in the June Supreme Court sitting.
Court found that the matter was already determined in the Marape appeal and also earlier today in the appeal that originates from OS JR 485 of 2014, the judicial review into the PM’s arrest warrant issue.
In this case, they are respondents in the Supreme Court appeal filed by Vaki, challenging his conviction and sentencing last year for contempt of court.
On June 17, 2015, Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia found Vaki guilty for wilfully refusing to execute a warrant of arrest against Prime Minister Peter O'Neill in 2014.
On July 3 last year, Vaki was sentenced to three years with hard labour by the National Court. He was however, allowed bail of K5,000 that same day on his own recognizes.
He was granted bail on three circumstantial grounds; the fact that he is a former Police Commissioner, custody would put him at risk in the prison environment.
His allergy condition and also that he would probably have served 12 months of his jail term whilst awaiting his appeal were the other grounds.