A city blogger, who parted ways with his former wife due to domestic squabbles, has been warned by a Makadara court against making any contact with his ex-wife.
Zachariah Opondo Obiero was cautioned by Senior Principal Magistrate Stephen Jalang’o after he pleaded not guilty to charges of issuing death threats and maliciously damaging properties.
In his plea taking session, the court heard that the accused had on diverse dated between October 11 and 12 in 2019 maliciously damaged the property of Linda Lesso valued at Sh1,245,245 at her residential place in Nasra Estate within Embakasi.
On the stated day, the accused is said to have threatened to kill Lesso’s children aged between three and ten years.
The list of property damaged included a six-burner gas cooker, a 75-inch TV set, Samsung double door fridge, one Sony home theater, four dressing mirrors, assorted kitchen wares, utensils among others.
However, the accused through his lawyer argued that the case was a domestic issue that happened in 2019 and it was resolved at the police station.
He argued that revival of the case was an afterthought and that police erred in detaining the accused for over 24 hours contrary to the law. He asked for leniency.
State counsel, however, urged the court to impose a stringent bond term to the accused, who is a blogger because he has been threatening his former wife on social media and that he at some point broke the side of her car.
Challenging the prosecution’s application, the defence counsel told the court that the accused could not impose any threat on the complainant since she was already married to a senior police officer.
The court in its ruling stated that both the accused and the complainant are barred from commenting on social media or any other place other than court on the matter.
“The accused is further warned against contacting the complainant directly or indirectly or contacting any of the prosecution witnesses. The breach of the above will lead to cancellation of the bond terms,” he said.
He freed the accused on a cash bail of Sh150,000.
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