Over 100 suspects arrested during protests out on bond

All the 185 suspects arrested for participating in the Tuesday anti-government protests within the Nairobi Central Business District have been released on bond.

Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Wandia Nyamu freed 167 of the Generation Z demonstrators on personal bonds of Sh50,000 each.

The eighteen remaining suspects who were found to be underage were admitted on personal bonds of Sh10,000 each.

Wandia dismissed an application by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to detain the suspects for 21 days.

“l have considered the application to detain the suspects for 21 days and find that it does not have the legal threshold and proceed to release all the suspects on personal bonds,” ruled the magistrate.

State prosecutors and 17 defence lawyers led by Levi Munyeria, Hosea Manwa, Wahome Thuku and Suyianka Lempaa clashed in court over the arrests with the latter claiming that the accused people were exercising their constitutional rights to picket.

One of the suspects, a sixteen-year-old, told the court that he had not eaten nor drunk anything since his arrest on Tuesday.

 “I plead with you to direct that I be given food otherwise I am starving. Since I was arrested I have not eaten nor drunk water. I am starving,” the teenager pleaded.

Various injuries

Munyeria informed the court that majority of the suspects were tortured and have not been accorded any medication.

He said about 20 suspects could hardly walk due to various injuries inflicted by police who clobbered them and kicked them indiscriminately.

The demonstrators who were driven into the law courts in five police lories chanted as they were being escorted into court cells “we are innocent. Ruto must go. Do away with Finance Bill 2024/2025.We want our rights. We need employment and good governance.”

The suspects remained in court cells for over four hours before they were arraigned before Nyamu after 3.30pm.

Pressing for the grant of the 21-day detention period, a prosecuting counsel Judy Koech said the 185 among them 18 minors were arrested on July 2, 2024 within the Nairobi Central Business District (CBD) where wanton destruction of property was witnessed.

Koech said police are investigating four offences of burglary, malicious damage to property, assaulting police officers and obstructing police officers in the execution of their duties.

She said police could not finalise the investigations since the Gen Z demonstrators engaged police in a whole day orgy that left at least two people dead and scores injured.

Wanton destruction

She urged the suspects to be detained at Capital Hill, Kilimani, Muthangari and Gigiri Police Stations to enable investigators complete the probe and identify the

The magistrate was urged to take judicial notice of the wanton destruction of property that has left a trail of destruction of property and loss of human lives.

The court heard over 50 people have been killed in these demos which have entered the third week.

Koech said the demonstrators mounted barriers along city roads with 14 coffins, lit tyres and barricaded  other roads with stones and boulders.