Meru Senator Mithika Linturi was on Tuesday charged at a Nairobi court with attempted rape.
Senator Linturi is accused of slipping into a woman's hotel room bed and attempting to rape her.
In the charge sheet, Linturi is accused that on January 30, 2021 at around 3am at Maiyan Villas hotel in Nanyuki, he intentionally and unlawfully attempted to rape the 36-old-woman.
He faces another count of indecently touching the woman without her consent.
The senator denied the charges before Milimani principal magistrate Esther Nanzushi and pleaded for lenient bond terms.
The court released him on a cash bail of Sh200,000 or a bond of Sh500, 000.
The case will be mentioned on October 26.
His arraignment comes after he failed to stop his prosecution at the High Court last month.
A senior officer at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations said the senator's claim that he came to know about his arrest through a letter to Interior CS Fred Matiang’i was false, and accused Linturi of trying to pre-empt a decision on whether to charge him or not.
In his reply before High Court judge Weldon Korir, chief inspector Keith Namukhasi said the DCI had already forwarded the investigations file to the DPP and was awaiting either consent to charge the senator, instructions to conduct further investigations or closure of the file.
“Investigations into the case on attempted rape on January 29, 2021, have been ongoing and the first petitioner (Linturi) was aware of this as he had earlier presented himself to the police to give his version of events,” Namukhasi said.
At the same time, the DPP argued that Linturi was illegally asking the court to investigate whether there was enough evidence to prefer charges against him.
According to the DPP, the rape claim had no relationship with 37 other charges that the court had barred the state from charging Linturi with.
Justice Korir declined to issue the conservatory orders barring the DCI and DPP from arresting and prosecuting the senator on criminal charges.
