The Law Society of Kenya wants all criminal cases the Office of Public Prosecutions failed to prosecute revived to ensure justice is equitably served.
LSK president Eric Theuri said the society is saddened with the manner in which the ODPP handled certain cases despite the overwhelming evidence collected by investigators that would have ensured justice was served.
Theuri faulted the manner in which the ODPP handled the murder of three employees of Karebe Gold Mine Company in Nandi despite glaring evidence that placed 10 people at the scene of the blast.
The deceased miners - Geoffrey Onyango,27, Julius Agui,45, and Geoffrey Kipchirchir Rotich,35 - were killed on January 23, 2023 following a blast set up by illegal miners inside the mining tunnels of the mining area in Chemase-Nandi county.
The three miners were part of a team fixing a wall to prevent illegal miners from breaching into the mining tunnels at the time the dynamites went off.
Six other workers were injured during the blast as the three were killed several hundred of meters inside the Nandi escapement.
Police swiftly swung into action and invited DCI detectives from Nairobi whose investigations placed 10 suspects at the scene of the murder.
However, despite recommendations from the sleuths, the ODPP declined to prefer murder charges against the suspects and instead recommended for repeat investigations to complete ”grey areas left” by the first team.
LSK now says the second team of investigators recommended murder charges against the same suspects discharged from custody by the Kapsabet chief magistrate Samuel Mokua after ODPP failed to prefer any charge.
The suspects were found to be operating as illegal miners and having been behind the fatal blast that killed the three miners and injured other six workers.
At the time of the blast, there was a court order stopping everyone from extracting rocks that contained the precious mineral in the area.
"Apart from being culpable for the incident that killed the deceased persons, the suspects were in contempt for breaching a high court order preventing them from entering the tunnels,” Theuri said.
He said they were interested in the victims getting justice from the court since it will be the only way to set precedence and end impunity in Kenya.
"We want the widows and children of the deceased persons to get justice at whatever cost because it will be the only constitutional way to bring the matter to rest by having the suspects prosecuted and feel how the families of the dead felt,” Theuri added.
The widows - Milicent Onyango, Caroline Rotich and Salina Rotich and their children are also appealing to international rights bodies to come to their aid.
"We have been receiving threats from the agents of the suspects asking to drop their demands for justice,” Caroline said.