Falsely accused of fraud, ex-diplomat Ambeyi Ligabo wins Sh2.5m
A former diplomat falsely accused of fraud has won Sh2.5 million.
On Wednesday, August 30, 2017, Ambeyi Ligabo flew back to Kenya from his diplomatic post in Burundi.
Unbeknown to the career diplomat was that a team of detectives were lying in wait for him at the airport.
No sooner had the plane carrying Mr Ambeyi touched down at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport than the sleuths pounced on him.
Mr Ambeyi would later describe the ordeal before the Kakamega Chief Magistrate's court as “deeply traumatic”.
"I was arrested upon arrival, thrown into a police cell and accused of stealing land from a widow," he said.
Trouble began for Mr Ambeyi, who served as Kenya’s Ambassador of Good Governance and Democracy to the Great Lakes Region, in 2017 when his cousin, Machanja Ligabo, went to court and accused him of forging land-transfer documents.
Mr Ambeyi was charged with four counts of forgery. According to the charge sheet, Ambeyi allegedly forged the documents on or before August 18, 2008, on claims that they were genuine transfers for two acres of land signed by Mr Ligabo.
He was further accused of producing the forged land transfer documents at the Lands Registry in Kakamega town.
According to the Investigating Officer, Mr Peter Maritim, the land measuring two acres (ISUKHA/ILEHO/1499) was the property of Mr Ligabo, his cousin whose signature was forged.
The complaint, filed at Kakamega Police Station, led to Mr Ambeyi’s arrest and his subsequent prosecution at the chief magistrate’s court.
In the court, Mr Ambeyi’s profession became the centre of controversy after the prosecution said it had not been furnished with any documents to prove that the accused was an envoy.
The then State Prosecutor, Samson Kiprotich, told the court that the accused had been on the run since the Director of Public Prosecutions preferred the charges against him.
However, the case, which dragged on for three years, ended in Mr Ambeyi’s favour on September 15, 2020.
The court found no evidence linking him to the alleged forgery, with the document examiner confirming that the disputed signature on a forged title did not match his.
The court established that by the time of the alleged forgery, the complainant (Ligabo), a former civil servant, was out of the country on official duty.
"The investigating officer either did half-baked investigations or hurried the case to court," Senior Principal Magistrate (SPM) Zachariah Nyakundi noted in his ruling.
Upon being acquitted, retired Ambassador Ambeyi sued his cousin Ligabo for malicious prosecution and defamation.
"As a public servant with 35 years of experience, this malicious prosecution caused irreparable damage to my reputation, both locally and internationally,” petitioned Mr Ambeyi.
The court agreed, noting that the case had been widely covered in the media, further tarnishing Mr Ambeyi’s standing as a person of good moral character.
Magistrate Nyakundi awarded him Sh1 million in general damages for the harm to his reputation and emotional distress, along with Sh1.5 million in special damages for the costs incurred during the legal battle.
While the Attorney General was cleared of any wrongdoing, with the court ruling that prosecutors had acted within their mandate, Ligabo was held fully liable for initiating the false complaint.
"The actions of Machanja may have been intended to punish Ambeyi for reasons known to himself," the magistrate observed.
He further stated that, “The accusations were baseless and severely damaged the former diplomat’s reputation.”