This archive report was first published on 24 August 2021.
On August 24, 2021, Senior Resident Magistrate Ms. Carolyne Muthoni Njagi delivered a verdict in the case of Makongeni Member of County Assembly Peter Anyule Imwatok, acquitting him of charges related to an illegal firearm.
The court found Imwatok not guilty of the four counts labeled against him, citing a lack of evidence to support the prosecution's claims.
According to the judge, the prosecution failed to prove that Imwatok had made the firearm certificate as charged, stating, 'There was no evidence induced in this case to show the accused person had made the said firearm certificate by either preparing it, printing it or even signing it...the prosecution did not prove their case to the required standards that the accused person made the firearm certificate as charged the accused is acquitted as the provisions of section 215.'
Imwatok's lawyer, Kokobe, welcomed the verdict, stating that the charges were politically instigated and could not stand legal test.
Section 2(a) of the Firearms Act, 2012, states that any person who purchases, acquires, or has in their possession any firearm or ammunition without holding a firearm certificate in force at the time, or otherwise than as authorised by a certificate, commits an offence liable to imprisonment for a term of not less than five, but not exceeding ten years.
