By Willis Oketch
Mombasa Republican Council (MRC) spokesman Mohamed Rashid Mraja has successfully applied to have his bond reduced.
But the magistrate retained stringent conditions on the new bond insisting it must consist of moveable property with a similar surety.
Mraja has been held at Shimo la Tewa since October 8 when Mombasa Senior Resident Magistrate Timothy ole Tanchu imposed a Sh2 million bond which he could not raise.
Mraja, who is unrepresented, told the magistrate on Tuesday: “I request this honourable court to reduce the bond because my family cannot afford Sh2 million.”
And his request was partly granted when the bond was reduced to Sh1.5 million with a similar surety.
The magistrate ordered Mraja to come to court in Shimo la Tewa where MRC leaders are detained on October 30 for the hearing of his case.
The accused has denied incitement charges of being in possession of T-shirt with printed words ‘Pwani si Kenya’, which indicated that it was desirable to disobey the Government.
In the same court, Mombasa District MRC chairman Masha Birya Dena alias Ali Masha has been charged with being in possession of two copies of Mwambao Resistance Movement booklets and two T-Shirts with the words ‘Pwani si Kenya’, ‘Mombasa Republican Council’, ‘Nchi Mpya’ and ‘Maisha Mapya’.
Separatist leader’s son
Masha who was arrested in Mtwapa near Kilifi on Monday was ordered to come for the hearing on November 15. He was granted a bond of Sh1.5 million with a similar surety.
By last evening Masha was still held at Shimo la Tewa prison unable to raise the bond.
Meanwhile prison authorities at Shimo la Tewa have completed arrangements to enable the teenage MRC suspect Said Bakari Katumbo to do his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education Biology practicals at Shimo La Tewa High School on Friday.
Said was arrested on October 15 in a police swsoop on separatist leader Omar Mwamnwadzi’s home in Kombani, Kwale and reports indicate the candidate is the separatist leader’s son.
He is a student at Moi Forces Academy at Mtongwe in Mombasa but the court has ruled that he should sit his examinations at Shimo la Tewa High School if he cannot raise a Sh3 million bond.
