Blogger Robert Alai will be detained for 14 days pending investigations in the case in which he's accused of publishing gory photos of slain police officers.
Senior Resident Magistrate Sinkyian Tobiko allowed an application by Anti-Terrorism Police Unit seeking to detain Alai and Prison Warder Patrick Safari.
Tobiko ruled that Alai did not defend himself or his sources against accusations of being terror elements as suspected by the ATPU.
“I note that not once did the two deny ever publishing the photos of the scene of attack or that they actually published photos of the slain officers,” the court noted.
The magistrate said that the 30 days asked for by ATPU were unduly long and 14 working days were more reasonable.
Alai and Safari were arrested on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively for posting gory images of slain officers on their social media pages.
According to the police, Alai was arrested for ‘disclosure of information in relation to terrorist activities’.
Chief Inspector Claus Shuma told the court that they are looking for a suspected police officer who took photos of the dead bodies from the attack and shared them with Alai and Safari.
“The police are pursuing other suspects specifically a police officer believed to have direct links to al Shabaab and is believed to have been in communication with the two suspects before and after the attack,” the affidavit reads.
According to the state, the alleged cop is a suspected al Shabaab sympathiser and is also believed to be the one who took the photos.
ATPU has confiscated the suspects' phones and flagged some of their contacts, which will need time to verify.
“Preliminary investigations so far conducted reveal that Alai and Safari were in constant communications with several numbers which are located in Kenya and Somalia,” the affidavit reads.
However, Alai strongly opposed the bid by the state to detain them for 30 days.
Lawyer Samson Nyaberi appearing for Alai told court that they were willing to abide by any conditions given to them even if it’s reporting rather than being held in custody.
Nyaberi said that the prosecution had not provided any compelling reasons as to why the Alai should be held for all those days when the police knew his home and office.
According to Nyaberi, the officers raided his house and office yesterday so they are very aware that he had a place of abode and cannot run away.
He claimed that the police have denied the blogger basic needs like food for hours.
He said that the person who took the photos and sent them should be the one in the dock and not Alai.
(Edited by O. Owino)
