Exiled Anguka now seeks to get Kenyan nationality
Former Nakuru District Commissioner who was at one time charged with the murder of the late Foreign Affairs minister Robert Ouko and later acquitted is now fighting to regain his Kenyan citizenship and be cleared of the murder charge.
Jonah Orao Anguka was arrested sometimes in 1993 in relation to the murder of Dr Ouko in 1990 and was released in 1994 for lack of evidence.
He fled the country for the USA thereafter seeking political asylum and acquired the American citizenship, automatically forfeiting his Kenyan citizenship in line with the old Constitution.
Anguka, through lawyer Kenneth Omondi, is now fighting to regain his Kenyan citizenship in line with the current Constitution, which promulgated in 2010 and recognises dual citizenship.
“I have been in the process of acquiring a police clearance certificate to be used in the application of a new citizenship unfortunately it is indicated that I have a pending offence of murder that makes me ineligible to acquire the new citizenship,” he says in court documents.
The former DC avers that he has made several attempts to have his name cleared by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to no avail.
Judiciary records
Anguka notes that on February 10, the senior deputy registrar of the high court in Nairobi indicated that the matter, according to the Judiciary records, had been finalized and that actually he was acquitted of the said charges.
According to him, there has been no appeal initiated against him at any time whatsoever by the state in the said charges after having been acquitted thus he stands innocent of the said charges.
Anguka noted that the government regulations issued recently indicated that as of March 2021, one couldn’t travel unless she/he acquires an electronic passport.
“I cannot acquire a new electronic passport in accordance with the directives since I have not been cleared by DCI of the said charges while my current passport is in the last three months of expiring,” he says in court documents.
He contends that he is being double-jeopardised on the criminal case despite having been acquitted of the murder of Robert Ouko in 1994.
“I have lost a lot of money and time trying to have the matter sorted, all the way and the respondent has since been adamant not issuing my clearance of the pending matter in which I was acquitted,” he says in court documents.
The former DC contends that he is being denied of his constitutional rights which he am entitled to and the same is frustrating his freedom yet Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) has the mandate to make sure his name is cleared of the said charges.
“I have been duly acquitted of the charges by the court and as by not doing so the same constitutes an abuse of a legal process as well as a blatant disregard of my public interest,” he argues in court documents.
He wants DPP and the DCI be ordered to clear him of the charge of murder.
Murder charges
He also seeks a declaration that the pending murder charges within the police records is unconstitutional and in breach of his bill of rights as envisaged in the constitution.
Anguka also wants the court to declare that the manner in which Directorate of Criminal Investigations handled his case by not having him cleared of the case in their records even after his acquittal was unfair, in bad taste and not in furtherance of the course of Justice.
He also seeks general damages for violation of his constitutional rights.
