DCI blocked as Court strikes out bid to search Tuju’s residence
DCI blocked as Court strikes out bid to search Tuju's residence
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has suffered a setback after a Nairobi court struck out an application seeking orders to search former Cabinet Secretary Raphael Tuju’s Karen home.
The agency had sought a warrant in a bid to extract CCTV footage as part of ongoing investigations into alleged false information.
But in a ruling delivered on Wednesday, Principal Magistrate Daisy Mutai struck out the application dated March 24.
The court found that it failed to disclose a clear offence against Tuju that would justify the issuance of search warrants under Section 118 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
The DCI had moved to court seeking authority to access Tuju’s residence along Mwitu Road in Karen and retrieve unedited CCTV footage from the entire premises.
The footage, according to court documents, covered the period between March 21 at 5.00 pm and March 23 at 2.00 pm.
Investigators argued that the footage was necessary for investigations linked to a suspected false report recorded under OB.
However, the court found that the application was fundamentally flawed.
In her ruling, Magistrate Mutai said the investigations were premised on a suspected false report that had been presented by a person other than Tuju, yet the search orders were being sought against him and specifically targeted his home for evidence retrieval.
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“The investigations which are being pursued by the applicant are premised upon a suspected false report presented under OB No. 17/22/03/2026,” she said.
“This report was however presented by someone else other than the Respondent (Tuju) himself and yet the warrants sought are against the respondent.”
The court further noted that while investigators had indicated that Tuju himself may have presented another suspected false report at a police station, details of that allegation were not included in the application before the court.
As a result, the magistrate found that the application did not meet the legal threshold required under Section 118 of the Criminal Procedure Code for issuance of search warrants.
On a balance of probabilities, the court held that the application failed to disclose an offence by Tuju, particularly the alleged offence of giving false information to a person employed in public service contrary to Section 129 of the Penal Code.
“In view hereof, I find that it is only in the interest of justice that the application be struck out,” magistrate Mutai ruled.
The court consequently struck out the application with no orders as to costs.
The decision comes amid ongoing legal developments surrounding Tuju, who is under investigation over allegations of providing false information to authorities.
The former CS is also battling an ongoing Karen property dispute.
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