A Kenya Revenue Authority employee was on Tuesday 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 10,000 shillings police bail.
He denied the allegations and was released on a bond of 30,000 shillings and surety of similar amount or an alternative cash bail of 10,000 shillings by magistrate Yusuf Shikanda.
This is after the magistrate quashed an application by the director of public prosecutions 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 mechanism.
The victim’s lawyer, senior counsel Jared Magolo, told the court that the suspect, after committing the crime, went ahead and stole 21,000 shillings from the victim’s phone before taking other properties from the house including a further 18,000 shillings.
“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 plea taking for 30 days to allow for ADR without even consulting the victim saying 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 complainant is being forced to reconcile yet the person in question is not even concerned. I pray that the court gives tough bond terms and the accused be restrained from accessing the victim directly or indirectly to threaten her,” he said.
The DPP had requested for the matter to be deferred for 30 days for the two parties to have a court mandated conversation.
Adongo through his advocates had earlier argued that he was ready to resolve the matter out of court for the sake of their children arguing that once plea is taken and the matter proceeds to trial, it will break the family and the children will be the ones to suffer most.
“He (Adongo) is not a bad person as portrayed. He wants to preserve the basic unit of society, but once plea is taken, that is the surest way to break this family,” said his advocate.
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