• When the woman noticed that people were closely following the breastfeeding, she stopped, forcing the infant to cry.
• The magistrate told her to take the baby out of the court and wait outside.
There was drama at a Nairobi court after a breastfeeding infant did it loudly, attracting the attention of the audience.
“This child may be hungry and has not eaten anything. Tuelewe tu (lets’ be understanding),” one of the suspects whispered to another accused woman.
When the woman noticed that people were closely following the breastfeeding, she stopped, forcing the infant to cry.
“The woman with the child, I can see your child is crying. Which case do you have so that we finalise with you?” the magistrate asked.
The woman walked forward close to the state counsel and told the magistrate that she had come to wait for her relative who was in the dock.
The magistrate told her to take the baby out of the court and wait outside.
A suspect in defilement case disappeared from court precincts when he saw a four-year-old who was to take to the witness dock to testify against him.
This forced the magistrate to issue a warrant of arrest against him.
The 55-year-old man tactfully resurfaced about 40 minutes after the minor had gone, raised his hand up and told the court that he had not heard his name.
“Your honour, I have not heard my name despite me trekking for a long distance to this court, I need assistance,” he shouted.
The prosecutor told the court that he had seen the accused person entering the toilet some minutes before his case.
“Your honour, the accused person sneaked out of the court temporarily when he saw the minor who was to testify against him and she has already left. He had the intention of boycotting this date for his case,” the prosecutor said.
The magistrate, however, cancelled the warrant of arrest against him and ordered the matter to proceed on another date but warned him to remain in court on that day.
“I have done away with the warrant of arrest but make sure you avail yourself early on the scheduled date. Make sure you remain keen as the court has given you the last warning,” the magistrate said.
The man left the court smiling and left the state counsel laughing.
A suspect who had been pushed to the wall by overwhelming evidence from an investigating officer laughed out loudly after the magistrate ordered the officer to testify off head.
The investigation officer who seemed to rely on his notebook was shocked by the magistrate’s order as she seemed not to have rehearsed.
“IO is that a notebook you are referring to as you testify or I am not seeing well?” the magistrate asked.
“Please give me that notebook and tell us what happened,” she said.
The IO handed over the notebook to the clerk who handed over it to the magistrate and by then, the suspect was laughing out loud.
But the IO had not exhausted her tricks yet. She got another notebook from her pocket but had to watch out so that the magistrate could not notice her. She was not smart enough.
“Madam IO, again that is another notebook. Please bring it here,” she said.
The IO testified later slowly in broken Kiswahili.