Ten varsity students in pre-election hate leaflets case want it dropped
Ten Moi University students who have been charged with circulation of hate leaflets in Eldoret town, Uasin Gishu County, a few days to the August 8, 2022 General Election.
Ten Moi University students who were charged with circulation of hate leaflets ahead of the August 9 polls want the court to withdraw the case against them.
Through their lawyer Oscar Oduor Opondo, they told the court that frequent adjournment of the case due to lack of cyber-crime evidence is an indication that prosecution has no evidence against them.
The students told Eldoret Chief Magistrate Dennis Mikoyan that prosecution is not committed in prosecuting the case due to frequent adjournments arising from failure to present in court a cybercrime report as a key exhibit crucial in the case.
The court heard that on July 29, 2022 at Moi University in Kesses sub-county, Uasin Gishu, jointly with others not in court, the accused students published false information using their mobile phones and caused fear and anxiety among Kenyans.
The leaflets were warning certain communities to leave Uasin Gishu ahead of the August 9 polls if they did not plan to vote for a certain presidential candidate.
Mr Oduor accused police of moving swiftly to arrest the suspects, yet they were not ready to prosecute the case.
“From the exhibit memo available in court, the said document was sent to document examiners way back in early August and to date the exhibit is not ready to be availed in court,” Mr Oduor told the court.
He told the court that the character of prosecution is an indication that the State is not ready to conclude the matter within the strict available timeline in dealing with election offence related matters.
The lawyer requested the court to ask the State to withdraw the matter since prosecution appears not to be ready to prosecute the matter.
Avail the report
While responding to application by State Counsel Grace Gachau to adjourn the case for three days after the anti-cybercrime unit failed to produce its report, he regretted that frequent adjournment of the matter is delaying justice to affected students.
He objected to the adjournment of hearing of the case, urging the court to withdraw the case and release the students.
The magistrate, in response, directed prosecution to avail the report in court on Wednesday and ordered that the matter be fully heard for two days.
The ten students were arrested on July 29, 2022 and charged in connection with circulation of hate leaflets through a WhatsApp group.
They all denied the charges and were released on a Sh1 million bond with a surety of the same amount, or an alternative cash bail of Sh500,000 each.
They were each accused of spreading false information to create fear ahead of the August 9 elections.
The accused students were also charged with publishing false information, contrary to the Computer Misuse and Cybercrime Act of 2018.
