'They are planning to arrest me again,' Babu Owino says

Embakasi East MP Babu Owino at Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi on July 21, 2023.. [Collins Kweyu, Standard]

Embakasi East MP Babu Owino has claimed that police are planning to re-arrest him, shortly after he was granted bail.

According to the legislator officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) have a plan in place to arrest him again.

"As we speak DCI officers from headquarters and Nairobi Area are all here in court waiting to re-arrest me," he says in a video shot from the Milimani Law Courts holding cells.

"If I leave the police cells within Milimani Law Courts they are planning to re-arrest me... anytime from now they are planning to re-arrest me but we shall still fight on. We know your plans but just proceed with them," he says in the video.

Owino and five others that had been charged alongside him were granted a Sh100,000 bail or Sh200,000 bond after Milimani Magistrate Lucas Onyina found that the State did not produce sufficient evidence against them.

The five are Calvince Otieno alias Gaucho, Eric Theuri, Tom Odongo, Michael Otieno, Pascal Ouma, Kelvin Wambo, and Willy Owino.

They were taken to Court on Thursday evening and the Magistrate deferred the ruling to Friday morning.

In his directions, he ordered that the legislator be taken to the hospital to get medical attention after his lawyers Ndegwa Njiru and Dancun Okatch claimed that during his 72-hour detention, he had been denied food and medical attention.

General Service Unit (GSU) officers were brought in to man the Milimani Law Courts on Friday morning as the case against the six was ongoing.

Several people including Standard Group Journalist Collins Kweyu were injured by the officers as they dispersed Owino supporters who tried to access the court.

According to the lawyers, Owino was arrested on Tuesday evening at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport after landing from Mombasa.

He was then driven to the Wang'uru Police Station in Embu County where he was detained until he was moved to the Nairobi Area Police Station on Thursday.