She will be back at the roaring engines of the Safari Rally championships after 43 months and 16 days being missing in action (MIA) because of a court case.
She faced murder charges.
Yes, the break is over after the High Court on Tuesday cleared her of any wrongdoing over the murder of rally ace and mechanic Assad Khan.
After going through the evidence of the prosecution and knocking it off blow by blow the judge declared "Maxine Wahome is not guilty of murder and she is acquitted."
Trial Judge Lilian Mutende cleared completely Maxine and declared her free at last.
“After analysing all the evidence presented by the prosecution, I return a verdict of not guilty in the murder case against Maxine Wahome,” ruled Lady Justice Lilian Mutende at exactly 2:20pm.
Immediately after the judgement, Mr Jimmy Wahome, the father of Maxine said: “After four years of pain, we are very happy with the judgment. We are relieved justice has been served.”
The Safari Rally driver's mother, Ms Beverly Wahome thanked God for the judgment where she told Justice Gauge that anguish was over and her daughter was innocent.
“We appreciate the good work of our defence team, led by Senior Counsel Philip Murgor, Eva Kala, Andrew Musangi and Steve Kimathi for their diligence, having fought tooth and nail to have our daughter cleared in the murder case,” she said.
Maxine, who was tense, declined to comment on the judgment.
SC Murgor said that his client Maxine was now free and "please look out for her at the rally scenes and she will give you an interview.”
In her lengthy judgment that lasted for over two hours, Justice Mutende said from the totality of all the testimony received from 27 prosecution witnesses, all she deduced was that the cause of death to Assad resulted from self-inflicted injuries.
She added three pathologists who performed autopsy on the body of Assad established that he died from Septicemia.
Besides the serious bloodstream infection, the doctors discovered from specimen extracted from the deceased's stomach that there was Ketamine, a powerful drug and 203 milligrams of alcohol in his blood.
In her detailed decision, the judge said the prosecution failed to avail “a scintilla evidence linking Maxine to the death of the rally ace on December 18, 2022.”
Analysing the testimony of neighbours, the judge noted that Assad was “a woman batterer who had 6 to 7 relations before his friendship with Maxine.”
On the material day on December 12, 2022, Maxine had gone with her sister and friends for a party at Westlands, Nairobi.
She returned to their Kileleshwa Preston Court Apartment at 3am only to be ushered with unprintable insults from the deceased who was already drunk.
Assad, the judge said, Maxine escaped to balcony to avoid the violent escapades meted out on her by the deceased.
She locked up the balcony door.
And in a fit of anger, Assad kicked the door with bare foot, which stuck at the broken glass inflicting serious harm which resulted into the cutting of a artery at ankle.
Assad, the judge said, pulled out his right foot which was bleeding profusely.
He fell into the living room where he lost a lot of blood.
Assad pulled himself to the staircase where he fell on his head and arms.
The judge dismissed contention by the prosecution that Maxine is the one who caused the deceased injuries in self-defense.
“The injuries on the deceased were consistent with a fall and not caused by Maxine,” the judge observed pegging her finding on the autopsy report.
Assad who was calling for car keys was assisted by neighbours who dashed him to The Nairobi Hospital where he was treated and later transferred to Avenue Hospital for blood transfusion.
Exonerating Maxine from blame, the judge noted earlier that evening (December 12, 2022) the two exchanged WhatsApp and text messages running over 76,000.
The court noted in some of those text messages, Assad had asked her to purchase for him Jameson and Gin.
In addition, police said they also found blue tobacco and remains of hard drinks in his apartment when they went to collect samples of the items in their bid to establish whether Maxine had a hand in the death.
Also the Nyandarua based High Court judge who heard the case said the prosecution failed to procure direct and circumstantial evidence linking her with the death of Assad then proceeded to acquit her.
Maxine who was dressed in black hoodie, a light blue top, a black pair of trousers and a matching pair of low heeled shoes, sat patiently and pensively in the dock following keenly as the judge knocked off the prosecution’s evidence bit by bit.
After the finding that Maxine was innocent, a defense lawyer Steve Kimathi applied to have the passport of Maxine be returned to her.
Also Kimathi urged the bond deposited by Ms Beverly Wahome be returned to her.
Further, he urged the judge to order communication messages exchanged by both be destroyed.
However, prosecuting counsel Gikui Gichuhi opposed saying it could be relied upon by the DPP on appeal.
The judge ordered the passport and securities deposited in court be returned to both Maxine and her mother.
The judge allowed the DPP to appeal against the judgment within 14 days.
