Court Issues Final Warning Over Missing Police File in Company Directors’ Death Threat Case

The Nairobi Magistrate has marked as the last adjournment the matter where a director of Heritage Flowers Limited is charged with threatening to kill a co-director, for the reason that the police file was not produced in court.

Principal Magistrate Caroline Mugo marked the file as the last adjournment, noting that the matter had been allocated for hearing thrice, failing to proceed, giving a reason that the police file had not been produced in court.

“This is the last adjournment by considering the previous adjournments with mere reasons that the police file was not available in court,”  the magistrate said.

The 2023 matter was allocated for hearing today, where the parties agreed to be ready until the prosecution sought an adjournment, citing that the police file was not in court,

“Your honour, we ask for an apology since we are not ready to proceed because the police file is not before the court and I have not got in touch with the officer investigating the matter,” state counsel Irene Magoro told the Magistrate.

The complainant’s lawyer expressed his disappointment, stating that “it is disgusting to see that we had availed the complainant in the matter and the translator who are in court, and the case fails to proceed with the obvious reasons of unavailability of the police file,”

The lawyer added that when the dates were provided, all the parties were present, including the investigating officer, whom the prosecution claims did not appear in court or avail the file.

The defence applied for the withdrawal of the matter since today was the third time in a row to adjourn, giving the same reasons,

“Your honour, we pray the matter be withdrawn if the prosecution is not ready to proceed, considering this is the third time to adjourn the hearing,” the defence counsel applied.

The Court had earlier dismissed the application by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to have the matter withdrawn, where Shailesh Kumar Rai, a director of a company, is charged with threatening to kill Punjabi Riyaz Mahammadali, a co-director in the company.

The ODPP, through a letter, had requested the court withdraw the matter as the file was under review. The defence lawyer, Daniel Gachau, representing the complainant, vehemently opposed the application by the ODPP, citing that they have not been supplied with the said letter,

“Your honour, we oppose the application to withdraw this matter since we have not been supplied with the said letter to see the grounds raised for the review of the file,” Gachau told the Magistrate.

He added that the allegations of threatening to kill are very serious, and he invited the court to consider the impact of the action on the complainant to withdraw the matter without sufficient genuine reasons.

The lawyer further stated that the case before the court is criminal, and, despite being another matter filed in the Commercial Division by the same parties, the current matter is criminal; the two can proceed concurrently.

The matter will be mentioned on July 15, 2026, to allocate the hearing day and the availability of the police file before the court.

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