The High Court has Sentenced the Acting Inspector General of Police Gilbert Masengeli to be imprisoned for six months after being found guilty of contempt of court.
While delivering the ruling, Justice Lawrence Mugambi ordered the police Inspector General to surrender himself to the Commissioner General of Prisons to serve his sentence.
According to the court, if Masengeli fails to surrender himself to prison, the Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki must take steps to ensure he is committed to prison to serve his sentence.
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“Mr Gilbert Masengeli is sentenced to six months imprisonment, he is ordered to submit himself to the Commissioner of Kenya Prisons to ensure he is committed to a prison facility to commence serving sentence.”
This comes after the Acting Inspector General filed an application before the High court seeking to have his conviction for contempt of court overturned in a bid to avert the ruling that was set to happen this morning.
However, the High Court rejected the application by the Inspector General who according to him was handling key security operations and other threats nationwide and therefore could not honour the court summons.
High court however left the sentence hanging for seven days to allow Masengeli to “redeem” himself by complying with the court orders and availing himself to court failure to which the sentence will become active after seven days from today.
“The court nevertheless finds it desirable to impose this sentence as a coercive order as opposed to a punitive order. Mr Masengeli may avoid serving this sentence and in that regard suspend this sentencing for seven days only, failure to which, it automatically become effective.”
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This comes after Gilbert Masengeli, the Acting Inspector General snubbed a total of seven summons made by the high court to explain the whereabouts of two brothers and an activist who were allegedly abducted by police.