Nabii behind the dock over Kakamega’s chaos
The Kakamega county chief of staff Nabii Nabwera appeared before a Kakamega magistrates court for allegedly funding the chaos that were witnessed on Saturday at Muliro Gardens during the presidential bid launch of the Bungoma senator Moses Wetangula.
Before senior resident magistrate James Ong’ondo, Nabii was accused of having undertaken activities that compromised the security of the people, read part of the affidavit.
He was accused of being behind the throwing of the teargas canisters that led to the injury of one person and the death of the other while undergoing treatment at the provincial general hospital.
You can also read, Wetang’ula starts journey to state house.
Reading the affidavit, police officer Richard Cheruiyot the investigating officer in the matter told the court that they had identified the accused as the key suspect and were working on getting others whom he worked hand in hand with to execute the same.
The prosecution called upon the magistrate to remand the accused for seven days to prevent him from interfering with the ongoing investigations besides it ordering him to surrender his cell phones for further investigations a plea that was not taken kindly by the 52 lawyers who were presenting the accused.
Led by counsel Laban Onziya for the accused, they said that their client needed frequent specialized medical attention and thus could not stand being in custody.
On issuance of his phones for further investigation, they argued that a phone is a private property that is protected under the constitution.
“One has a right under the law to refuse to give self incriminating evidence to the police.” Argued the lawyers.
They further dismissed the sworn affidavit as a blatant abuse of the law asking the court to punish the investigating police officer in charge for failing in his duties.
“What is purported to be an affidavit is an abuse of the same, it is not sworn, it is not dated, not sealed and neither does it show where it was sworn.
They accused the police officer of not including his personal identification number in the affidavit claiming that he could be an imposter.
They urged the court not to allow police officers to engage in illegal activities like not identifying themselves as expected by the law.
They pleaded with the magistrate to expand the affidavit and dismiss the application saying that it had been filed on 4th November 2016, a date that was not yet.
Nabii was released on medical grounds at Ksh. 20,000 bond and was called upon to report to the police station daily between 8 am and 5 pm to assist the police officers with investigations.
The case will be mentioned on 7th April 2017.
In the same court was the county attorney Moses Sande accused of trying to obstruct justice. The charge sheet read that on 3rd April,2016, at the district criminal investigations office in kakamega he tried to block an officer Charles Mwaizinga from executing his duties.
Represented by the same lawyers, they argued that the charge sheet was not clear on the offense committed explain that the mode and manner of obstruction were not clear.
Their plea to release advocate Sande on a personal bond was heed by the magistrate.
