A KRA employee was on Wednesday, September 13 arraigned at the Shanzu magistrate’s court in Mombasa for allegedly assaulting his wife.

Norman Adongo Odiwuor who works at the DTB enforcement section is alleged to have committed the crime on September 1 at one of their residences in Nyali.

The matter was reported at the Nyali Police Station where the suspect was released on a KSh10,000 police bail.

He denied the allegations but magistrate Yusuf Shikanda released him on a bond of kSh30,000 plus assurity or an alternative cash bail of KSh10,000.

This is after the magistrate quashed an application by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) to have the plea deferred for 30 days to allow for the parties to settle the matter out of court using an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanism.

KRA staff accused of stealing money

The victim’s lawyer Jared Magolo told the court that the suspect, after committing the crime, went ahead and stole KSh21,000 from the victim’s phone before taking other properties from the house and a further KSh18,000 cash.

“A second report was made at the Nyali police station before he (Adongo) refunded the monies through another person,” said Magolo.

Magolo, however, raised concerns over the manner in which the DPP acted to defer the taking of plea for 30 days to allow for ADR without even consulting the victim.

The lawyer said that since the matter was reported, not even a single attempt was made to contact the victim.

He questioned why officers who were supposed to protect victims were forcing her to a reconciliation meeting.

“The decision was done without consulting the complainant. She has only received text messages from people related to the accused person and the officer in charge of station (OCS) Nyali police station that the accused’s job should be protected,” Magolo said.

No room for reconciliation

He argued that there was no room for reconciliation adding that if the plea taking was to be deferred, then it would sanitize what was attempted on Monday.

The magistrate put to task the DPP to explain how the office will be prejudiced when plea is taken. He also questioned why prosecution registered and approved a charge knowing they were not ready.

Adongo, through his advocates, had earlier argued that he was ready to resolve the matter out of court for the sake of their children.