A commissioner with the National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC) has questioned a decision by a court in Nyeri to give a defilement and murder suspect more than a month to rethink his plea.
Speaking on Friday afternoon in Nyeri County, NGEC's commissioner, Dr Margaret Karungaru wondered why, despite the mental assessment indicating that the accused person, Nicholas Julius Macharia, was fit to stand trial, the court had given him a chance to plead a second time. "This is an offence where we feel that the judge had a leeway to expedite this case so that Tamara (the victim) gets justice as soon as possible.
We know that once an accused person is given a long time to reflect, we may get a plea that is not guilty so we are very concerned because we thought that this was a very straightforward case," said the commissioner. "The accused has accepted that he is guilty and we could not understand why the case was moved to next month for him to take a second plea and we are feeling that Tamara is being denied justice," she added.
Dr Karungaru was referring to a decision by the High court in Nyeri to grant Macharia the prime suspect of the defilement and murder case of a seven-year-old Tamara Blessing Kabura in Witemere, Nyeri County, some 46 days to reflect after he pleaded guilty to murder charges.
