Nairobi Hospital bosses' seven-hour ordeal at Milimani Law Courts

Tension hovered at Milimani Law Courts on Monday for seven hours as an 80-year-old heart patient—who is also a doctor and a Board Chairman of one of Kenya’s most prestigious hospitals—sat locked in the back of a police car, as his lawyers fought inside the courtroom to free him.

Dr Job Obwaka, chairman of The Nairobi Hospital board, had arrived at the court at 8am under DCI escort alongside three co-accused, vice chair, lawyer Samson Kinyanjui, and directors Chris Bichage and Valary Gaya.

But instead of being walked into court or held at the court basement cells, they were confined inside two DCI vehicles, a Land Cruiser and a Subaru, parked in the Magistrate’s parking lot as lawyers waited in vain for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) to formally file charges.

They waited for over seven hours without any formal charges and no communication from the police or the prosecutors on their fate.  

They had spent the entire weekend in police custody. Dr Obwaka and lawyer Kinyanjui were held at Pangani Police Station, the other two at Muthaiga.

Nobody had told them what they were being charged with. Nobody had told them when this would end.

Inside the courtroom, senior lawyers Nelson Havi, Ochieng Oduor and LSK President-elect Charles Kanjama, leading a defence team so large it spilled into the gallery, demanded that their clients be brought immediately before Senior Principal Magistrate Teresia Nyangena.

The court had been in session twice in the morning. A prosecutor from the ODPP had appeared both times.

Havi reminded the court of a parallel situation that hung uncomfortably over Monday’s proceedings.

Four years ago, he had stood in this very court, fighting for clients held in almost identical circumstances including the case of a former Kenya Ports Authority boss facing graft charges.

The magistrate presiding then was Lawrence Mugambi, now elevated to the High Court bench. That matter had resolved swiftly.

Havi also recalled the case of Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu, who was brought before a court in similar circumstances. The then Chief Magistrate, he noted, had freed her instantly.

“We have over 200 doctors in court today,” Havi told the magistrate, gesturing at the packed benches. “The request is simple, let us walk to the car park and find a way to stop the suffering of these four.”

The magistrate, however, adjourned court proceedings and granted the DPP one to two hours to file formal charges.

But at the critical moment when the lawyers demanded their clients be physically produced from the car park, the prosecutor vanished from the courtroom when court resumed for the third time at 11am, with lawyers demanding answers as to why the State was taking so long to recommend charges against the Nairobi Hospital bosses.

“Where is the prosecutor who was here?” Havi demanded, turning to face a courtroom in which the State had no representative.

“There was someone from the office of the DPP who was here, he has vanished.”

Kanjama addressed the magistrate directly. “Once the prosecutor is found, we can walk to the car park with yourself, Magistrate, to see the situation the suspects are being held,” Kanjama said.

Magistrate Nyangena, realising she was presiding over a court with no State representation and four detainees sitting in car boots outside, adjourned proceedings to locate the prosecutor and determine what the DPP intended to do.

As of that moment, no charge sheet had been filed anywhere in the court e-system and the doctors had clogged the courtroom demanding the release of the four.

The drama deepened with every passing hour with DCI officers silent and doctors chanting outside the court premises demanding the release of four officials.

When the court resumed at 12:23pm, the answer from the State was the same.

A State prosecutor appeared before the magistrate in as many sessions and delivered the same admission: the charge sheet was not ready.

The decision to prosecute had not been approved up the chain. He sought one more hour for the DPP Renson Ingonga to okay the prosecution and charges to formally be filled in court.

It was Kanjama who put into words what the packed courtroom was feeling.

“There are four suspects outside the court premises in the car park the whole morning,” he said.

 “We have a doctor who is about 80 years old who has a heart condition. As we speak, his situation is deteriorating. He is just there, at the car park, waiting to hear whether he will be charged or not.”

Lawyer Cliff Ombeta revealed that the DCI’s detention of the four was in violation of a High Court order issued by Justice Diana Kavedza, which had granted each of them anticipatory bail of Sh100,000 in March last year.

The state was barred from summoning, questioning, arresting, or detaining any official connected to the leadership, management and affairs of The Nairobi Hospital.

“Their fundamental rights have been violated. Various court orders on anticipatory bail have been ignored,” Ombeta told the court.

While the legal arguments raged inside, the situation in the parking lot was becoming a medical emergency.

Dr. Obwaka, who was arrested on Friday and spent the entire weekend without being granted police bond, was deteriorating inside the hot police vehicle.

Word reached the courtroom that he was unwell. His lawyers immediately alerted Magistrate Nyangena.

Then two ambulances from Nairobi Hospital, the very institution at the centre of this entire case, swept into the Milimani courts parking lot.

Dr. Obwaka was extracted from the police vehicle and rushed to hospital for medical attention.

He was back within an hour and a half, stabilised enough, doctors determined, to face what the system had been preparing for him since Saturday.

At 2pm, after more than 30 hours in custody and a full morning in police vehicles, the DPP finally approved the charge sheet.

At 2:45pm, the four were brought before Magistrate Nyangena to answer to various charges related to alleged conflict of interest over the loss of Sh8 million at the facility, and failure to file statutory financial statements for three years.

All the four faced charges of conflict of interest under the Companies Act and failure to lodge the company’s financial statements for 2022, 2023 and 2024 with the Registrar of Companies.

Specifically, director Munga Nyamaratandi was accused of receiving Sh4.8 million from Meritorious Insurance Agency, a company contracted by the hospital, between November 2023 and March 2024, while serving as a director.

Kinyanjui faced a similar charge involving Sh3.9 milliomn from the same agency.

All four pleaded not guilty.

During the bail application, defence lawyers Havi, Kanjama, Ombeta, Danstan Omari and Sam Nyaberi argued for leniency, noting the offences carried a maximum penalty of just Sh200,000.

He further told the court that his client was not serving as a director when some of the alleged offences were committed and asked the court to consider his age and medical condition.

“Dr. Obwaka is a senior citizen aged 80 years and suffers from medical conditions. The court should consider a token cash bail of Sh10,000,” Kanjama told the court.

Ombetta asked the court to allow the accused to rely on the anticipatory bail earlier deposited in court.

“The personal bond or the cash bail of Sh100,000 earlier deposited in court can apply,” Ombeta said.

Another defence lawyer, Rogers Sagana, also presented a High Court order issued by Justice Nixon Sifuna indicating that he had cautioned investigators against interfering with parties to the dispute, noting that the issues before the court required protection of litigants.

“Pending the hearing and determination of the application, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), its Director and officers are restrained from summoning, threatening, questioning or detaining any persons who are parties or witnesses in the suit on matters related to the leadership, management and affairs of The Nairobi Hospital,” Justice Nixon Sifuna had ordered.

Magistrate Nyangena released all four on a Sh5 million personal bond each with two contact persons, warning that any breach of bond terms would result in immediate cancellation.

“I have carefully considered the nature of the offences and the status of the accused persons, who are not in the class of flight risks,” she said.

“I therefore order their release on a personal bond of Sh5 million with two contact persons each.”

The prosecution was directed to supply all evidence material to the defence within 14 days.

The case will be mentioned on March 31, 2026 for pre-trial directions.