RIGHTS CRUSADER OKIYA OMTATA TO SPEND NIGHT IN DETENTION.

Rights crusader Okiya Omtata will spend the night in detention for failing to observe justice which he fights for.

Police arrested Omtatah at Milimani Law Court shortly after a warrant of arrest over claims that he failed to appear in court for hearing of a criminal case against him.

Chief magistrate Francis Andayi ordered for Omtatah’s arrest on Thursday in a case in which he is charged alongside other 32 protesters.

The 33 were arrested in June 2011 for locking up the offices of former Education Minister Sam Ongeri, over the alleged theft of Sh4.8 billion Free Primary Education Funds.

Omtatah says that he refused to appear in the case because the magistrate failed to attend court in time.

He said that he informed the prosecutor that he had gone to attend to another matter at the High Court.

“By 10.00 am the Magistrate had not turned up and since I had another case in the Employment and Labour Relations court, I left to attend to it,” he said.

In addition, Omtata said that when the Magistrate came in some 10 minutes later, he called out the file and upon being informed that I had gone to attend to a matter in the Superior Court, he refused to listen to the prosecutor who had asked that my file be set aside until I returned.

The activist, together with 33 others were held at the Industrial Area Prison for 10 days, and charged in 2011 without being put on trial.