High Court judge Justice Antony Mrima has sentenced DCI boss George Kinoti to serve 4 months jail term at Kamiti Prison for disobeying a court order.
Kinoti is required to surrender to the prison authorities within 7 days.
The sentence follows after Kinoti defied a court order compelling him to return firearms confiscated from businessman Jimmy Wanjigi.
The Inspector-General of Police Hillary Mutyambai has been ordered to effect the warrants against Kinoti if he fails to surrender himself to the prison facility with the seven days.
The contempt of court sentence against Kinoti comes after he failed to present himself in person on Monday, September 27, 2021, in court following a summons by the judge.
Justice Mrima, ruled that Kinoti was guilty of contempt of court and sentenced him accordingly. Kinoti had also been given an opportunity to mitigate before the court to pass the sentence but he has failed to appear in court.
Kinoti is accused of disobeying orders issued in January 2019 directing the DCI, Inspector General of Police and the DPP to return all firearms and ammunition taken from Wanjigi's residence in 2017.
The sought firearms are one pistol make Smith and Wesson, one Glock pistol, one assault rifle among others which were confiscated from Wanjigi's home.
Mrima in issuing the directive said the State acted irrationally by taking Wanjigi's guns while he still held a valid license.
In 2019 the High Court ordered the state to return Wanjigi’s firearms to him.
But the firearms were never returned to the businessman. In February 2021, the court gave further orders for the DCI to ensure the mogul got his guns back but the orders were ignored.
In 2019, the then High court Milimani Judge Chacha Mwita ruled that the government acted unreasonably by taking away Wanjigi's firearms since he had a valid license.
"The actions of the respondents(state) were unlawful and actuated by malice. The court grants orders that all firearms be returned to the plaintiff(Wanjigi),” Justice Mwita ruled.
This was after Wanjigi moved to court claiming that the police raided his house without a search warrant and took his firearms.
