Kalonzo obtains court orders to retain gun, bodyguards

The Judiciary has issued orders barring the Government from arresting the National Super Alliance Co-principal Kalonzo Musyoka over his gun.

Kalonzo who owns a Baretta pistol was also granted by High Court judge Roselyne Aburili orders directing the licensing officer to reinstate or renew his firearm license revoked on January 30.

Security personnel attached to his homes in Nairobi’s Karen area, Yatta in Machakos and Tseikuru in Kitui County; and bodyguards are to also continue serving him pending hearing and determination of the case.

This comes days after the licensing department revoked his certificate including the one belonging to Nasa Co-principal Musalia Mudavadi and several Nasa MPs.

The former Vice President who obtained the firearm license in 1998 moved to court on grounds that his security detail had been withdrawn by the state without notice, a move he termed as blatant breach of the Retirement Benefits (Deputy President and Designated Officers) Act, 2015.

The court was told that unknown gunmen hurled explosives accompanied by gunfire at Kalonzo’s home and bomb disposal experts found a grenade in the compound. This, the court was told traumatized his family.

On January 30, the government wrote to the NASA leaders, asking them to return the guns a day after their security personnel were withdrawn in what the leaders termed as a hurried decision by the government to intimidate them.

In the letter that required them to surrender the firearms by February 1, the board’s secretary, Mr Samwel Kimaru stated that “You are unfit to be trusted with a firearm.”

Dagoretti North MP Simba Arati was the first Nasa MP to obtain orders preserving his security pending hearing and determination of his case.

Certifying the case as urgent few days ago, High Court judge George Odunga also allowed Arati to apply for an order preventing the Ministry for Interior, Inspector General of police and the Firearms Licensing Board from interfering with his lawful usage and continued possession of his firearm.

The MP was also allowed to apply for an order quashing the January 30, decision that revoked his license and ordered him to surrender the gun in his possession.

The judge is expected to give further directions regarding the case on February 13.

Arati who got his license on November 12, 2015 told the court that the principles of good governance as set out in Article 10 of the Constitution was not followed in revoking the document.

The court was told that MP was not given any notification prior to the revocation or an opportunity to be heard, adding that he was condemned unheard.

“The process leading to the making of the decision was accented with secrecy and driven by ulterior motives and political considerations in a manner that violates the provisions of the law and defeats the principles of the Constitution and right to fair administrative of action,” Arati said through his lawyer Arnold Ochieng.

Through his spokesman Kibisu Kabatesi, Mudavadi said it is the responsibility of the government to provide former Vice Presidents and Prime Minister with security and should not be withdrawn at the whim of the police, incumbent minister or president.

“I warn Jubilee leaders that by completely violating the law, they are setting a perilous precedent that will come to haunt them once out of power. It is just a matter of time before the Jubilee leaders harvest what they have sowed by violating the rule of law,” he said.