Court postpones hate speech case to mourn lawyer's death

The mention of a case in which eight legislators charged with the offence of incitement to violence last month was on Friday postponed to Monday.

This came after the court was told that lawyers wanted to be allowed time to mourn their colleague, Mr Willie Kimani, whose body had been reportedly found an hour before the court sitting.

Without disclosing further details, lawyer Harun Ndubi requested the court to adjourn the matter since Mr Kimani’s body had been found in a river, several days after he disappeared.

Together with lawyers James Orengo and John Khaminwa, they had appeared before a Magistrate Court while representing the five Coalition for Reforms and Democratic (Cord) leaders who were charged with hate speech related charges.

They were representing Junet Mohamed, Johnstone Muthama, Timothy Bosire, Aisha Jumwa and Florence Mutua.

“Incognisance of the fact that the lawyers have explained themselves and that the Law Society of Kenya members need to meet over the death of their colleague, I direct that the accused persons do appear in this court on July 5 voluntarily,” Resident Magistrate Stella Mutuku said.

The Magistrate also allowed the request since Ms Jumwa and Ms Mutua were also not present in court because they were not aware of the mention of their cases, and were out of Nairobi.

The court heard that their lawyers had not informed them in good time and, therefore, they were separately trying to get flights to the city in order to attend the court proceedings later in the day.

The magistrate said the five should appear in court without fail and declined to issue warrants of arrests.

CHARGE MUTHAMA
The five were released on a cash bail of Sh300,000 and bond of Sh2 million on the day they were charged.

Their Jubilee counterparts MPs Ferdinand Waititu (Kabete) and Moses Kuria (Gatundu South) also appeared for the mention of their cases in a separate court before Magistrate Charity Alouch.

The two were freed on a cash bail of Sh2 million or bond of Sh5 million.

Meanwhile, Bahati MP Kimani Ngunjiri also appeared before Chief Magistrate Daniel Ogembo for the mention of his case.

They were all charged separately on the same day with offences of incitement to violence and ethnic contempt. Their cases will be heard on August 30.

Meanwhile, police want Machakos Senator Johnson Muthama charged with ethnic contempt, an offence that carries a five-year prison sentence.

However, Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko has ordered further investigations by the National Cohesion and Integration Commission, before deciding whether the lawmaker should be charged.

Ndegwa Muhoro had recommended the charge to the DPP after investigating the senator for hate speech.