Two persons accused of impersonating journalists have been charged.
Thomas Ochieng Owino and Fred Odanga Azelwa, who were first arrested on July 9 this year and released on Ksh10,000 police bail, were apprehended again on Friday, September 24, and produced at the Milimani Law courts.
According to the charge sheet, the two posed as journalists with the intent of gaining access to the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) in Nairobi's Central Business District, a building housing Senator's offices.
The two were arrested by detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) attached to Parliament Police Station.
The prosecution charged the two with giving false information to a person employed in the public service contrary to Section 129(a) of the Penal Code.
According to court documents, the duo lied to James Maina Macharia, a media relations officer at the Senate, that they were members of the Media Council of Kenya.
The duo was charged for lying to Macharia with the intent of gaining access to KICC on July 9, 2021.
"At unknown date at an unknown place within Nairobi City County with intent to deceive, forged a certain media card purporting to be a media card from the Media Council of Kenya, the information you knew or believed to be false, intending to cause the said James Maina Macharia to allow you enter the premises of Kenyatta International Convention Centre which ought not to have done," the charge sheet read in part.
The duo was released on a bond of Ksh100,000 or an alternative cash bail of Ksh50,000 each.
Cases of people impersonating journalists have been on the rise with the Media Council of Kenya warning Kenyans to be careful and report incidents where journalists do not follow set guidelines.
In 2020 three people impersonating Citizen TV journalists were arrested in Nakuru town while seeking an interview from former NACADA Chairman John Mututho.
The impersonators, two men and one woman are said to have pretended to be Citizen TV journalists from Nairobi County. They, however, failed to produce their accreditation after Mututho became suspicious of their identity.
Police officers and Nakuru County Intelligence officers rushed to the scene, arrested the three and took them to the Mwariki Police Station. Cops discovered a camera, one tripod and a microphone.
