A man believed to be Raila Odinga's supporter who is suspected to have shared a video on Social media allegedly asking "Baba' to go to Russia and bring guns has been released on Sh500, 000 cash bail.
Baba is a moniker used to refer to ODM leader Raila Odinga. It is not clear whether he referred to Raila by saying the word 'Baba'.
Shadrack Omondi alias Omosh Jakababa spent seven days in police custody pending investigations into the matter.
Police have alleged that Omondi is believed to be behind a Tiktok video where he alleged that Baba should go to Russia and procure guns for his supporters to invade the State House.
Investigating officer Inspector Nickson Kinyua on Monday informed the court that he had completed investigations and forwarded the file to the office of the director of criminal investigations.
The prosecution, however, told Milimani senior principal magistrate Martha Nanzushi that they were seeking three days to peruse the evidence to know if it was substantive to charge the suspect.
“Your honour, I confirm that we received the file today and have forwarded it to the DPP to review and know the type of charges the accused can prefer against the suspect. We are seeking an extension of three days to come back in court," the court was told.
Omosh through her lawyer Shanice Mutheu opposed the addition of more days to detain him arguing that investigations were already complete.
Mutheu requested the court to grant Omosh a cash bail as the DPP reviews the evidence.
Magistrate Nanzushi agreed with the application and released him on a cash bail of Sh500, 000.
The case will be mentioned on July 19.
Last week, the court allowed the police to detain Omosh for seven days instead of 14 as had prayed pending investigations into incitement and terror-related accusations.
"I have heard the application by the investigating officer to detain the respondent. However, I feel that it would be unfair to detain the suspect for 14 days only to move the court later with an application to have the matter withdrawn for lack of sufficient evidence. I will not grant the 14 days as prayed, I grant seven days," the magistrate ruled.
Kinyua said Omosh was arrested in Kisumu on Monday, July 10, 2023.
According to the DCI, Omosh among other suspects still at large is said to have published through Tiktok a malicious video captioned 'Baba enda Russia utuletee bunduki'.
"We believe that the averred publication went further to state and appear to indicate that once they acquire the purported weapons, they would be able to face off with the law enforcement officers," the officer said.
Further, DCI told the court that the utterances by Omosh involved incitement to take up arms to advance to a protected area (State House) without permission.
In his objection through lawyer Danstan Omari, Omosh stated that DCI has not linked the Tiktok account to him hence it is hot air.
Further, he said that the word 'Baba enda Russia' does not disclose any offence because Russia is not a restricted country hence anybody can access it.
He also told the court the wording 'utuletee bunduki' has a million and one meanings.
"The word utuletee bunduki has a million and one meanings, "bunduki za michezo(sports), bunduki for game hunting, bunduki in the term of toys" is not certain, also Baba simply means father, which Baba? The world has a trillion of farther, whom do you assign that name to, the police should do better than that," Omari said.
Omari submitted that it is absurd that the state is telling the court that Omosh is also being investigated for the offence of terrorism.
