Covid-19: trial of Kilifi DG Gideon Saburi fails to kick off
Kilifi Deputy Governor Gideon Saburi (centre) at the Mombasa Law Courts for the mention of his case on May 5, 2020.
What you need to know:
- The case was to be heard for three days this week until Thursday.
- Mr Saburi had previously made an application seeking to have the prosecution supply him with names of the panel of doctors who conducted Covid-19 tests from samples purported to have been obtained from him.
- Mr Saburi had also sought to be supplied with a list of samples taken from him on March 18 that led to his alleged results.
The trial of Kilifi Deputy Governor Gideon Saburi, who has been accused of willfully exposing himself to members of the public while suffering from Covid-19, failed to proceed for hearing today.
The case file had been called out and the court was informed by the prosecution and defence lawyers that they were ready to proceed.
Mombasa chief magistrate Edna Nyaloti placed the case file aside for other matters to be mentioned first.
However, after the open court session took a break, prosecution and defence lawyers went to the chief magistrate's chambers without Mr Saburi who was left sitting in court.
In instances where criminal cases are mentioned in chambers, the accused is always present.
After about ten minutes, defence lawyers returned to court, engaged with Mr Saburi and then left the court precincts with him.
It was not clear what transpired in chambers as the prosecution only told court that “there are complications, we cannot proceed”, before the case was fixed for hearing on November 9, 10 and 11.
The case was to be heard for three days this week until Thursday.
Out on bail
The accused is alleged to have committed the offence between March 6 and March 22 within Kilifi County.
In April, he was released on Sh200,000 cash bail or an alternative of Sh500,000 bond with surety of a similar amount.
Mr Saburi had previously made an application seeking to have the prosecution supply him with names of the panel of doctors who conducted Covid-19 tests from samples purported to have been obtained from him.
Mr Saburi had also sought to be supplied with a list of samples taken from him on March 18 that led to his alleged results.
The accused told the court that he wanted to be supplied with any documents where he signed, if at all, declaring that he gave samples to Kemri for testing.
The Deputy Governor also applied to have the State supply him with a list of re-agents used at Kemri to conduct evaluation of the purported samples informing the results of March 21 where he is alleged to have tested positive.
On its part, the prosecution had told the court that it intends to call a witness from Kemri to adduce evidence on the tests carried out.
