MPs pay activists refuse to take plea

Demonstrators stage protests outside Parliament Buildings to oppose demands by MPs for higher pay. Seventeen protesters arrested during last week’s anti-MPs-pay-increase demo in Nairobi have refused to plead to criminal charges pressed against them. . PHOTO/JENNIFER MUIRURI   NATION

By VINCENT AGOYA agoya@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Monday, May 20   2013 at  17:53

In Summary

• The group Monday said the charges “lacked sufficient disclosure” and asked the court to declare the case “unconstitutional”, and set them free.

Seventeen protesters arrested during last week’s anti-MPs-pay-increase demo in Nairobi have refused to plead to criminal charges pressed against them.

The activists have been slapped with several charges including taking part in an illegal procession and cruelty against animals.

The group Monday said the charges “lacked sufficient disclosure” and asked the court to declare the case “unconstitutional”, and set them free.

“The Constitution demands that anyone arrested should be informed of the charge, given sufficient details, understand it first before pleading,” Lawyer Harun Ndumbi for the accused said.

The accused, he said, were not prepared to answer to half-baked charges and accused the prosecution of taking a casual approach to the case.

“To try to compel them to answer to such charges would amount to perpetuating an illegality,” he said.

The charge sheet, which stated that the activists intended to provoke a breach of peace by releasing a pig, six piglets and pouring “a blood-like” substance outside Parliament Buildings on May 14, formed the basis of the lawyer’s contention.

He said without clear particulars of accusations, the charges remained “vague, incomplete and dubious,” supposedly trumped up to cause unnecessary suffering to the suspects.

He further accused police of locking up the suspects at Central Police Station for over six hour without telling them the reason for their arrest.

Come clean

“We are not told who amongst them forwarded the substance... who was in control of the pigs, who one amongst them had a gallon or gallons of blood and whether it was human blood, pig blood or merely a substance coloured red,” the lawyer added.

He demanded that the police come clean on the ownership and control of the animals, saying those particulars were necessary in understanding the nature of the charges pressed against the activists, otherwise they be struck out as defective.

Mr Ndumbi said the prosecution ought to divulge the nature of the riot it purports the activists participated in “and specify which people participated.”

The charge sheet stated that the protesters had blocked a section of Harambee Avenue and caused fear among motorists.

The prosecution, however, maintained the charges had merit and urged the suspects to plead with the view of raising objections later.

Nairobi Chief Magistrate Kiarie Waweru ordered the accused to deposit cash bails of Sh10,000 each pending a ruling on the objection raised against the prosecution. Immediately the court ordered the activists to be taken into custody until their bonds are paid, they started chanting slogans and songs.

The 17 are alleged to have been part of the protesters who took Parliament by storm last week to oppose MPs pay-increase bid. Ruling is on May 23.