Embakasi East MP Babu Owino and self-styled ghetto president Calvin Okoth Gaucho were Friday released on a cash bail of Sh100,000 each.
Milimani chief magistrate Lukas Onyina noted that the charge against the accused persons is punishable upon conviction for imprisonment for a term not exceeding seven years.
Onyina said one of the reasons advanced by the prosecution was that the witnesses are most likely to interfere with witnesses.
However, he said the prosecution was not clear on which of the accused persons would interfere with witnesses.
“A wholistic look at the affidavit does not disclose compelling reasons to deny the accused person bond, each of the accused persons is granted a bond of Sh200,000 with an alternative cash bail of Sh100,000,” he said.
Also released on bond are Tom Odondo, Michael Otieno, Pascal Ouma, Kevin Wambo and Willys Owino.
On Thursday Babu Owino, Gaucho denied conspiring to commit subversive activities which are prejudicial to public order.
They allegedly committed the offence on dates between July 7 and 23, 2023 with others not before court within Nairobi City County.
The prosecution had opposed their release on bail stating that there are other aspects of the investigations the subject of the charges which are still ongoing and which would be prejudiced if they are released on bail.
The prosecution counsel urged Court to be pleased to deny each of the Respondents bail, and to or order their detention pending the completion of t investigations on the basis of the instant charges.
The court heard the accused persons are a threat to national security
“On dates between 7 days of July 2023 and 18 days at July 2023, people reasonably believed to be the Respondents’ accomplices not only gathered unlawfully but also rioted in various parts of Nairobi County thereby committing a number of penal offences as charged in the instant charges”, the DPP submitted.
Upon effecting arrests of the respondents, we recovered mobile phones paired with sim cards from each of the Respondents which are already being analyzed for purposes of forensic evidence to be used in proof of the instant charges.
The prosecution argued that there is also a likelihood of additional charges being preferred against each of the Respondents upon the conclusion of the ongoing investigations.
The defence through lawyers Danstan Omari, Dancun Okatch, and Ndegwa Njiru among others told Court that the arrest and prosecution of the seven accused persons is pure Ethnic profiling.
According to the lawyers, the affidavit tabled by the prosecution to deny the accused person’s bond is the same affidavit used from 2017 to 2022 to oppress members of the ruling class.
The defence in rebuttal said that all the seven accused persons are members of the Azimio coalition and that they all come from the Luo Ethnic community.
Babu who was arrested at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and detained incommunicado was held at the Milimani Law Courts basement cells before being arraigned in Court minutes to 5:00 pm.
He had been driven and detained at Wanguru police station in Kirinyaga county.
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