MPs Junet Mohammed (Suna East), Aisha Jumwa (Malindi), Timothy Bosire (ex-Kitutu Masaba MP) and Florence Mutua (Busia Woman Rep) have been acquitted of incitement to violence charges leveled against them in 2016.
The Star on Thursday, September 19, reported that chief Magistrate Martha Mutuku acquitted them on the grounds that the charge sheet was defective and unclear.
The magistrate is reported to have also ordered the refund of their cash bail but refused to offer an apology to them for spending 4 days in custody.
The four had been arrested after they made disparaging remarks directed at Moses Kuria following his calls for the assassination of the ODM Leader in 2016.
Kalonzo Musyoka had in May 2018 asked the president and Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party leader Raila Odinga to see to the dismissal of the charges brought against the Pangani six in the spirit of the handshake.
"As a show of goodwill, all those pending criminal prosecutions against politicians, and particularly concerning the Pangani Six, should be dropped and a nolle prosequi entered," Kalonzo had stated.
The six were former Machakos Senator Johnstone Muthama, MP Junet Mohamed (Suna East), Timothy Bosire (former Kitutu Masaba MP), Moses Kuria (Gatundu South MP), Kimani Ngunjiri (Bahati MP), Ferdinand Waititu (former Kabete MP now Kiambu Governor).
The MPs were locked up at Pangani Police Station for four days as they awaited police to complete investigations before charging them.
Aisha Jumwa (Kilifi woman representative) and her Busia counterpart Florence Mutua, were locked up at the Muthaiga Police Station at the time.
Moses Kuria and Ferdinand Waititu were acquitted in February 2017, leaving the then CORD legislators and Bahati's Kimani Ngunjiri still battling the charges.
The two were acquitted by Nairobi Magistrate Charity Oluoch who ruled that the English and Kiswahili translations provided as part of the evidence in the case were incorrect.
The brief stint in the cells had turned the Pangani six, who beforehand were bitter rivals, into good friends who even vowed to go work together to preach peace.
“Being in the cell was quite tough for all of us. You sit, you stand up but it was still so uncomfortable. If this is what it will take for Kenyans to unite, then, so be it. We have learned a big lesson that we will not forget,” Waititu had stated after his release on bond.
