Embakasi East Member of Parliament Babu Owino has revealed plans to summon President William Ruto as a key witness in the ongoing trial of political activist Nuru Okanga.
The vocal lawmaker spoke on Monday, November 24, outside a Nairobi court where he, alongside a legal team of 26 lawyers, faulted the prosecution for delaying proceedings.
The legal team expressed frustrations over the prosecution's failure to produce an expert witness, who was allegedly unavailable because they were in China.
While invoking the legal principle that 'justice delayed is justice denied', the lawmaker claimed prosecution was fearful of losing the case and had resorted to delaying tactics.
"Our client is suffering, he travelled from Mumias to Nairobi on his own cost to find prosecution is not ready," Babu Owino lamented.
He went on, "These are signs that the state has already lost this case. We want the prosecution to present a main witness who is the complainant in this matter, who is President Ruto. We want him to come to court."
According to Babu Owino, the case could not continue without a complainant and in this case, President Ruto was the complainant
"We want him to come to court. The DCI cannot complain, and prosecutors cannot complain, and that is the next application we will be making," Owino said.
Okanga is facing an array of charges, including publishing false, defamatory and threatening information on social media, with prosecution claiming he posted a video on TikTok in which he made threatening remarks targeting the President.
According to the prosecution, Okanga allegedly made statements urging the then deputy president to resort to violent action against the President.
After the video went viral, Okanga was apprehended in Tasia Estate, Nairobi, in January. Under cross-examination, however, arresting officer Milton Mwanzi testified that he could not verify the authenticity of the video since he lacked expertise in cybercrime investigations.
The arresting officer also admitted that there were no court orders obtained to track Okanga's movements and during his arrest, no gadgets were seized.
Following the no-show from prosecution on Monday, Babu Owino revealed Okanga's legal team would file an application targeting Ruto as a state witness on Tuesday.
