www.Kisii.Com: Syndicated news from only reputable sources [Nation, and Standard Newspapers, Kenya Times, KBC, etc.]
MP Arrested Over Remarks On Moi
- Details
- Published on Monday, 23 July 2007 01:14
Mr. Magara, of Ford Kenya, was arrested when he presented himself before the Nyanza Provincial Criminal Investigations boss after a warrant for his arrest was issued.
The Nyanza Provincial Criminal Investigations boss Jonathan Cheruiyot told the MP that he was going to be charged with treason. However, after six hours of consultations between Mr. Cheruiyot and the CID headquarters under constant pressure from Ugenya MP James Orengo, the charge was reduced to one of creating a disturbance.
Mr. Orengo said the police were acting on remarks allegedly made by the MP at a harambee in his constituency last weekend.
He allegedly said that "since God had failed to answer Kenyan's cry for President Moi's death, he hoped he (Moi) would die soon of natural causes".
Mr. Orengo had argued that treason charges against the MP would be defective.
Mr. Magara had presented himself at Mr. Cheruiyot's office at about 10.30 am after evading arrest since last week.
On arrival, the two MPs were welcomed with a cup of tea before Mr. Cheruiyot ordered Mr. Magara to record a statement with an inspector in a separate room.
However, Mr. Orengo later told the press that his client and colleague had been arrested on treason charges.
Mr. Magara said that the CID officers had demanded him to record a statement concerning his utterances against president Moi on the weekend of August 13/14.
Speaking to the press in his office Mr. Cheruiyot said: "We may take him to court today or tomorrow morning. I am just waiting for some more information. We will call for a press conference when we are ready as of now I can't tell you anything more."
He also declined to say how long the CID officers have been hunting for Mr. Magara and what nature of information he was waiting for and from where. The PCIO also was non-committal whether and why Mr. Magara was going to be charged with treason including a presidential directive last week.
However, Mr. Magara and Mr. Orengo said the treason charges had already been drawn and all they were waiting for was for Mr. Magara to be arraigned in court adding that the PCIO and his team were not decided whether to charge
During his five day tour of western province last week, president Moi ordered the police to arrest and prosecute any politician who used public forums to heap abuse on other leaders including dispersing and canceling the meetings.
Addressing a rally at Butere Girls High School, the head of state said some opposition leaders were abusing the public rallies licenses to hurl abuses at other innocent leaders and wondered why the police left them to do so in their presence.
By the time we went to press, Mr. Magara was still being kept under tight security at the CID offices
