South C building collapse: Court issues arrest warrant for accused Nairobi County official

Gombe is charged that, being an employee in the public service at the Nairobi City County Government, he willfully neglected to stop construction of Mamzil Towers on Land Reference number 2O9 /5909 /10 (Nairobi block 68/ l306) despite known noncompliance, a duty which you were dutifully bound to perform. 

When the matter came up for mention on Monday, the prosecution, led by Nora Otieno, applied for warrants of arrest against the 5th to the 10th accused persons, arguing that they had failed to honour court summons.

"We are making an application for warrants of arrest against the 5th to the 10th accused persons. During the last appearance, we agreed to issue summons instead of warrants. There was no reason given for their failure to attend court despite receiving the summons. No medical documents have been produced before this court, and we therefore pray that warrants of arrest be issued," Otieno told the court.

However, defence lawyer Danstan Omari and Shadrack Wambui opposed the application, explaining that the 5th and 6th accused persons had genuine reasons for their absence.

Omari told the court that the 5th accused, Patrick Analo, was unwell and that medical documents would be produced once they were received. He added that the 6th accused, Frederick Ondari, had travelled upcountry to attend a funeral.

"The 5th and 6th accused persons are not present in court. The 5th accused is unwell and we will produce the medical documents. The 6th accused travelled upcountry for a funeral. We undertake to produce both accused persons on the next mention date. We have not been able to receive the medical documents because I was away over the weekend," Omari submitted.

He further informed the court that the 5th accused had already collected the court summons from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).

After considering the submissions, the court issued a warrant of arrest against John Gombe Osike for failing to attend court and directed that summonses be issued to the other absent accused persons to ensure they appear at the next mention on July 27.