A Nairobi court has issued a warrant of arrest against former Embakasi MP Ferdinand Waititu for failing to appear in court for his hate speech case. Mr Waititu was scheduled to appear before principal magistrate Lucy Mbugua for the mention of the case but he did not turn up. The former MP and assistant minister is under trial for two charges of incitement to violence and hate speech. He is accused of uttering words calculated to bring violence to members of the Maasai community in a public place in Kayole on September 24, 2012. Mr Waititu denied the charges and in August offered a public apology for the remarks perceived to have ignited animosity against the Maasai community in which two people were killed. The incident cost him his job as an assistant minister in the Ministry of Water and Irrigation and landed him in court. Initially, Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko had sought additional murder, assault and property damage charges against him following the incident at Nairobi’s Kayole estate in which a Mr John Kireri Gitau was killed allegedly by guards, prompting then MP to visit the scene where he said the Maasai community should be evicted from the area. He told the court when he apologised that he had been seeking an out of court settlement in the matter to help stem the ethnic animosity his utterances caused while he was MP. The prosecution had said they were aware of the reconciliatory meetings and said they may drop the charges in the event they reached an agreement. The case will be mentioned on October 16 for further directions.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Oct 2013 16:52:21 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015