Attendees at the Mombasa courtroom were left in stitches after a suspect requested the presiding magistrate to help him locate his friends.
The suspect, who appeared before Mombasa Senior Principal Magistrate Vincent Adet on Friday, November 11, was granted bail but could not raise the cash.
He thus wanted his friends traced to aid him in raising the money to secure his freedom.
At the pretrial, the accused asked the magistrate if he was in a position to assist him in tracing the mobile numbers of his friends from a phone that went missing during his arrest.
“Your honour, I have a request to make. Can you help me locate my friends since I lost my phone and their contacts?" he asked the magistrate.
The magistrate, who was seemingly left in shock, took his time to explain to the suspect that he needed to sort out his problem with the help of his family and friends.
However, the accused turned comical and argued that the magistrate wields power to summon his friends.
"With your powers, l believe that they would come to my aid if you called out their names in court.
"I’m truly suffering at Shimo La Tewa, where I’m being held,” he enticed.
Adet, nonetheless, wondered why the accused could not ask his wife to search for the contacts of his friends and other relatives.
"Why me? You just mentioned that you have a wife… why don’t you send your wife to look for your friends," Magistrate Adet quipped.
However, the accused, facing charges of causing a fatal road accident, seemed so helpless that the magistrate had to sympathise with his situation.
After listening to his passionate pleas, Adet reviewed his bond terms and released him on a bond of Ksh15,000 and one contact person.
He was accused of killing one pedestrian in the road carnage that occurred on October 10, 2022, in Mikindani sub-county, Mombasa County.
Meanwhile, Mombasa Principal Magistrate, Vincent Adet, is famous for his philanthropic acts in court.
He is known for offering short-term solutions to suspects' challenges despite the crime committed.
In October 2022, Adet offered a suspect new clothes after being arraigned with a torn shirt that exposed sensitive body parts.
