BY NT CORRESPONDENT.
Nandi Senator Samson Kiprotich Cherargei refused to cross-examine a witness who gave evidence against him before a Nairobi court in a case where he is charged with hate speech.
This was after Milimani chief magistrate Wendy Micheni insisted that the trial had to proceed with the absence of Cherargei’s lawyer who failed to turn up for the hearing.
The senator had requested for an adjournment of the trial stating that his lawyer was appearing before another court, but the magistrate declined.
While declining to adjourn the case, the magistrate said the defence was aware that the case was scheduled for hearing.
Wycliffe Mwatu, a senior social media investigator attached to the National Cohesion and Investigation then took to the witness box and testified as the first witness.
He gave his evidence before the court asked Cherargei to proceed and ask him questions after completing his testimony.
The senator refused to cross-examine the witness, protesting that he was forced to proceed with the trial without his lawyer.
Cherargei later asked the court to provide him with the typed proceedings of trial so that he could move to the High Court to challenge the decision minus his lawyer.
But the senator requested for typed proceedings of the case with intent of moving to the High Court to appeal.
“I would request for typed proceedings so that I can proceed to the High court,” said Cherargei.
The senator has denied charges of ethnic contempt of the National Cohesion and Integration Act. The charges stated that he said on August 2019, the words., “Hii Kenya sisi si squatters, na wakitaka hii Kenya tutakanyagana mpaka wajue hawajui ama tufunge hii Kenya.”
This loosely translates to, “We are not squatters in this Kenya and if they want, we will step on each other until they know they actually don’t know or we will close down this country.”
Cherargei allegedly made the statement while addressing a public gathering during a fundraiser for Kilibwoni Football Club.
The court heard that the words said by the senator were calculated to stir ethnic hatred by the Kalenjin community against other communities.
The witness told the court that on his line of duty on August 2019 he saw a video circulating on different media platforms that eluded some utterances that sounded inappropriate.
The prosecution stated that they shall go ahead and produce a DVD prepared by the witness and a transcribe to serve as a proof that the words used by the accused person aimed at causing ethnic violence, bloodshed and destruction of property.
A DVD was produced before court alongside a certificate prepared and signed by Mwatu on August 20, 2019 and he went ahead to allow the prosecution as evidence towards the question at hand.
Mwatu told the court that he used a forensic toolkit and a HT tracker to spot that the information in the DVD was a red flag.
The prosecution was to present two other witnesses before court but they failed to appear before court and yet they were bonded thus the court ordered them to appear in court tomorrow without fail.
