BY THE ARUSHA NEWS REPORTER
The High Court at Arusha has allowed full hearing of an application for judicial review lodged by Assistant Inspector of Police, Yahaya Salehe Mokiwa, that seeks to overturn the decision of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to demote him from the rank of Inspector of Police.
“We find that both limbs of the Preliminary Objection require factual ascertainment before they can be determined. Accordingly, the Preliminary Objection is hereby overruled. The substantive Judicial Review Application shall proceed to hearing on its merits. Costs shall abide the outcome of the main application. It is so ordered,” declared Judges Nyigulile Mwaseba and Dafina Ndumbaro in a recent ruling.
The other respondents in the application are the Police Force, Prisons, Fire and Rescue and Migration Service Commission, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Attorney General (AG).
The respondents had contended that the application was bad in law for containing a statement which was not part of the application for leave to appeal and that its service was time barred, contrary to some rules under the Law Reform (Fatal Accidents and Miscellaneous Provisions) (Judicial Review Procedure and Fees) Rules, 2014.
In their ruling, the judges pointed out, among other things, that determination of whether the notification from the respondents was done outside the legal seven-day period required the court to ascertain its validity taking into consideration the date of filing, admission, the date when documents became available for service and the actual date of service.
“These are matters of fact ascertainable from the record and are not self-evident pure points of law,” they said.
In the application, Mokiwa challenges his demotion from the rank of Inspector of Police to that of Assistant Inspector of Police. He alleges that he was not given his statutory right to appeal against the decision of the Disciplinary Authority.
