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The High Court at Kerugoya held that the prosecution had not established a prima facie case in a murder charge, and acquitted the accused at case-to-answer stage.
No-case-to-answer ruling in a murder charge: the High Court found the circumstantial evidence too weak to link Cecilia Maitha Nyaga to the killing.
Republic v Mate (Criminal Case E999 of 2024) [2026] KEMC 505 (KLR) (12 August 2026) (Ruling)
The prosecution failed to establish a prima facie case because no eye witness identified the accused as the thief, the complainant did not see the taking, the accused was not recovered with the stolen items, and the evidence did not sufficiently prove that he was the person who committed the theft. The court therefore upheld the no-case position and acquitted the accused at the close of the prosecution case.
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Republic v Makumi & another (Criminal Case E500 of 2025) [2026] KEMC 510 (KLR) (12 August 2026) (Ruling)
The prosecution failed to prove the critical link between the accused persons and the stolen phone or funds: neither accused was found with the phone, the money was not traced to them, the search and recovery evidence was defective and inconsistent, and the complainant himself could not identify who took the items after losing consciousness. The ingredients of stealing were therefore not proved to the required standard, and the doctrine of recent possession could not apply because the stolen property was not found in the accused persons’ possession. The court acquitted both accused at the clo…
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Republic v Karimi (Criminal Case 16 of 2020) [2026] KEHC 12015 (KLR) (28 July 2026) (Ruling)
The prosecution evidence, taken at its highest, linked the accused to the deceased through repeated communications, the deceased's consistent dying declarations that the accused gave him juice shortly before he became ill, corroborative witness accounts, and toxicology evidence showing poisoning. Although the medical evidence did not conclusively prove the poison caused the fatal stroke, the totality of the evidence was sufficient for a reasonable tribunal to convict if unrebutted. The court therefore found a prima facie case and ordered the accused to defend himself.
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Republic v Maero (Criminal Case E011 & E012 of 2022 (Consolidated)) [2026] KEHC 11375 (KLR) (27 July 2026) (Ruling)
The prosecution adduced evidence that the deceased children were last seen alive in the accused’s custody, died from manual strangulation, the accused was present when their deaths were discovered, and there was no evidence of another intruder; taken together, this was more than a mere suspicion and constituted evidence upon which a reasonable tribunal could convict if left unanswered, so the accused was placed on her defence.
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Republic v Hassan (Criminal Case E007 of 2024) [2026] KEHC 11439 (KLR) (24 July 2026) (Ruling)
The prosecution adduced evidence that the deceased was the accused's wife, was found dead in the shared house, and the postmortem and surrounding circumstances showed unlawful death caused by injuries inflicted with pieces of wood found in the room. That evidence was sufficient to establish a prima facie case, so the accused was properly put on his defence under section 306(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code.
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Republic v Njigwa (Criminal Case E012 of 2024) [2026] KEHC 13005 (KLR) (24 July 2026) (Ruling)
The prosecution failed to adduce evidence showing how the fire started or linking the accused to the ignition of the fire beyond suspicion and family hostility. No witness saw the accused start the fire, the alleged confession was inadmissible and contradicted, forensic analysis detected no accelerant, and the circumstances did not establish an actus reus attributable to the accused. The court therefore held that no prima facie case had been made out under section 306(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code and acquitted the accused at the close of the prosecution case.
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Republic v Rono & 2 others (Criminal Case E2050 of 2023) [2026] KEMC 350 (KLR) (23 July 2026) (Ruling)
The prosecution failed to prove the essential ingredients of any charge to the prima facie threshold. There was no admissible proof of a meeting of minds for conspiracy, no reliable evidence of dishonest conversion or personal appropriation for stealing, no demonstrated prejudice or unlawful arbitrariness for abuse of office, and the forgery evidence was weakened by reliance on photocopies, denial/contradiction from key witnesses, and the absence of reliable original-document examination. The court therefore found the case was not one where the accused should be called on to fill gaps in a de…
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Republic v Kamau (Criminal Case E003 of 2024) [2026] KEHC 11181 (KLR) (21 July 2026) (Ruling)
The prosecution failed to establish a prima facie case because no witness testified to seeing the accused stab the deceased, the alleged screwdriver and DNA/forensic results were not produced, and the public witnesses who arrested the accused did not testify; the evidence therefore could not support a conviction if the accused offered no defence. The court found no case to answer and acquitted the accused under section 306(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code.
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