Police officers face backlash over ‘absurd’ charges against CORD legislators

NAIROBI: Draft charges against CORD MPs accused of hate speech, circulated on social media on Tuesday may expose grave weaknesses in initial police prosecutions and investigations.

The charges, on the basis of which the legislators became “guests of the state” from Tuesday morning, were widely ridiculed on social media prompting denials that they were not the final charges to be preferred against them.

According to criminal lawyer Harun Ndubi, most of the proposed charges bordered on the absurd, some outright comic and yet others seemingly forced. “This is what we mean when we say taking one's imagination too far. Essentially, the charges were a figment of imagination of the police who drafted them. You cannot purport to charge a person with incitement for merely calling on the president to fulfill his responsibilities,” Mr Ndubi told The Standard on Sunday.

He was referring to the proposed charge against MP Timothy Bosire who was accused of uttering the words: “Mr President you are failing your responsibility to symbolise the unity of one state.”

The complainant, the National Police Service through the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, said the words “implied an act which was calculated to incite to violence the residents of Nairobi.”

The proposed charge sheet against Mombasa County MP Aisha Jumwa was quite vague. It said she uttered the words: “Moses Kuria amechaguliwa kwa mazungumzo. Mtu kama yule ni kupoteza wakati na hakuna mwafaka utakapopatikana chini ya Moses Kuria.” (Moses Kuria has been appointed in the dialogue team. To have a person like him in the dialogue is a waste of time. No agreement can possibly be reached under Moses Kuria)

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In the charge sheet, police said Jumwa’s utterances “implied an act which was calculated to incite to violence the residents of Nairobi.”

However, the charges against Busia MP Florence Mutua, Machakos Senator Johnstone Muthama and Suna East MP Junet Mohamed appeared to have a tinge of incitement element. Strange as it may seem, the trio were accused of uttering similar words in the alleged act of incitement.

In the proposed charges, police accused Mutua, Muthama and Junet of uttering the words: “If the Inspector General of Police Service will not speedily carry out investigations of the Jubilee MPs I will lead a protest to the IG’s office and cause chaos.”

Police say they understood the words as inciting to the residents of Nairobi.

On Wednesday, Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko distanced his department from the draft charges. He said his officers had nothing to do with them.

“Those are proposed charge sheets drafted by the police. Investigations are still ongoing and no charges have yet been preferred or approved by my office,” he said.