Activist Boniface Mwangi and four other protesters arrested on Thursday while engaging in protests in the Nairobi Central Business District (CBD) have been freed by a Nairobi court on a cash bail of Sh 20,000 each pending investigations to establish the financiers behind the demonstrations.
A ruling rendered by Magistrate Gilbert Shikwe on July 26, 2024, granted Mwangi, Robert Otieno, Albert Wambugu, Pablo Chacha, and Erot Franco bail term terms after declining a request by the Director of Criminal Investigations to continue holding them for 21 days to enable his officers to complete the probe over allegations of publication of false material, taking part in an unlawful assembly and creating a disturbance in a manner likely to cause a breach of peace.
While granting the suspects bail, Shikwe noted that the DCI and the DPP did not give compelling reasons to warrant him detain them for another 21 days.
“Having considered submissions by both the prosecution and the defence, I find that there are no compelling grounds to deny the accused bail. I hereby grant them a cash bail of Sh20,000 each,” the magistrate ruled.
In an application filed in court by DCI, through Inspector of Police, George Karanja sought to detain the activist and four others for 21 days to complete investigations into the matter.
State prosecutor Judy Koech said they were arrested on July 25, 2024, on Koinange Street, Nairobi, where they allegedly caused a breach of peace and inconvenienced other road users by blocking the road by placing a white coffin and seven white crosses with the names of people killed by police during anti-government demonstrations.
The DCI further claims that the five were distributing T-shirts and placards allegedly labeled with incitement words.
“”The respondents through various social media platforms posted allegations that the government was out to kill its citizens which words were deemed and construed that the government was perpetrating extrajudicial killings; posts which incited the members of the public causing a breach of peace,” officer Karanja informed the court.
Karanja also told the court that investigations are ongoing to establish the motive for carrying the assorted items that Mwangi and the others were arrested with.
Police added that their phones had already been confiscated and were undergoing forensic analysis to establish the financers.
“Investigations are ongoing and there is a need to establish where the white coffin and the white crosses were sourced from as well as establish their financier(s),” Karanja told the court.
The officer had also opposed their release on bail saying the place of abode of the five is unascertained and freeing them may jeopardise the investigations.
Defence lawyers vehemently opposed the application by the state and asked the court to release their clients on bond.
They said there were no compelling reasons to keep them in custody for 21 days as their mobile phones had been confiscated by the police
The lawyers argued that the police produced the suspects in court without a holding charge by the prosecution hence the application for their continued detention lacks basis.
“The suspects have no past criminal records and the fifth suspect’s brother(Franco) met his death in protest and the body is currently preserved at City mortuary; detaining him for 21 days will bar him from attending his brother’s funeral,” the court heard.
The case will be mentioned on August 26
