The hearing against the former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga and 11 others failed to start as scheduled after the defence team protested heavy police presence around the court. Lawyer Ndegwa Njiru said it was a bad image for armed policemen to block all the roads leading to Nakuru Law Courts in a bid to keep citizens away. He threatened that the defense would stage a protest if friends and relatives of the 12 accused persons were not allowed to attend the court hearing.
Njiru said Kenya was not a police state. He told Chief Magistrate Kipkurui Kibelion to summon the Nakuru County Police Commander and order him to recall all the extra police officers around Nakuru Law Courts.
“Even lawyers are not being allowed in court before showing identity cards to prove that they are members of the Law Society of Kenya,” he said frustrated. His sentiments were echoed by Lawyers Evanson Ondiek and Olaly Cheche who said the public has a right to witness the administration of justice.
“The police are treating everyone as a member of Mungiki and we do not know what informed their decision,” Ondiek said. He accused the State of using the police to intimidate the defense suspects and their relatives. Prosecutor Wycliffe Omwenga dismissed the prayers by defence saying that the court had a limited capacity to hold the friends and relatives.
He claimed that a witness fainted on Monday due to congestion in the courtroom. The magistrate Kibelion noted that while as the court could not accommodate everyone, the prosecution and the defense could deliberate on who to be allowed in. He adjourned the hearing for 20 minutes to allow the opposing sides to agree.
Njenga and the co-accused are charged with being members of an unlawful sect, attending an illegal meeting, being in illegal possession of firearms and marijuana and recruiting people into an illegal grouping among others. Allegedly committed between May 11 and May 12 in Githioro area of Wanyororo in Bahati Sub-County.