Magistrate Rejects Recusal Bid, Orders Sh110M Fraud Trial to Proceed

The Milimani Magistrate’s Court has refused to recuse itself from hearing the case where a director of a company and his wife  were charged with stealing KSh 110 million.

While delivering the ruling, Principal Magistrate Paul Mutai dismissed the application filed by the DPP through prosecuting counsel, Virginia Kariuki, who requested the court to refer the file to the Chief Magistrate for reallocation after she requested to recuse herself from prosecuting the matter.

“No merit for the file to be transferred to the Chief Magistrate for reallocation, and the hearing will proceed in the current court,” the Magistrate ruled.

Magistrate Mutai indicated that the current court has three prosecuting counsels handling different matters, and the current file can be handled by one of them since there are no special circumstances on record.

The ruling comes after the DPP’s application to withdraw the matter was dismissed after the court ruling that no convincing reasons were submitted for their prayers to be granted.

The DPP, through state prosecutor Virginia Kariuki, had applied for the matter to be withdrawn with reasons that it is more of a commercial than a criminal case and the same to be pursued in the Commercial Division.

She told the court that the decision was achieved after a comprehensive review of the file and a conclusion that the matter can be pursued in a civil court.

“The instructions were to apply for the withdrawal of the matter since the best forum to solve the dispute is before a civil court where the complainants can proceed,” Kariuki told the Magistrate.

While rejecting the application for withdrawal, the Magistrate cited that the law allows criminal and commercial matters to run concurrently and concluded that there was no justifiable reason for withdrawal. He also noted that the complainant was not involved.

He added that the victim in the matter was made a spectator, an action that would demean the scales of justice to both parties.

The Magistrate further indicated that the same office approved the criminal charges against Shailesh Kumar Rai, his wife Ranjeeta Pandey Rai, employees Isaac Ikua Kihara and Chris Oyunge, who were charged on July 28, 2023. The hearing commenced, and two witnesses have already testified.

When Kariuki applied for the recusal, she told the court that since she had applied for the withdrawal, it would create a conflict of interest during the prosecution process.

Shailesh and his wife Ranjeeta were directors at Rosalia Blooms Limited, while Kihara and Oyunge were employees in the company.

They were charged with conspiring to defraud Euros 368,416.71 (Sh60,678,687) and USD 348,166.94 (Sh49,578,972), the property of Heritage Flowers Limited.

The prosecution, through state counsel Judy Ingutia, alleges that on September 21, 2021, and August 2022, at Diamond Trust Bank (DTB) in Nairobi, they concealed the disposition of monies they knew were proceeds of crime.

The husband and wife were further accused of concealing a transaction of USD 88,495 (Sh12,566,290) at DTB.

Rai was further charged with forging minutes of a virtual meeting of directors of Rosalia Bloom Ltd on February 19, 2022.

The matter will proceed to the hearing on June 9, 2026.