Changamwe Member of Parliament (MP) Omar Mwinyi was charged with 10 criminal offences including obstructing polling officials, disruption, and destruction of polling materials during shambolic ODM nominations on Saturday.
Mwinyi was arrested on Saturday after he allegedly stormed a polling station.
He was arraigned in court on Monday but didn't plead to the charges after his lawyers Jared Magolo, Michael Oloo, and Mohamed Khatib indicated that the matter happened during the ODM party primaries and should be resolved internally and not in a law court.
The lawyers further urged the ODM National Elections Board to set up an internal dispute tribunal to come up with a resolution mechanism on the matter and he further noted that taking the matter to court was an abuse of the judicial system.
His lawyers further criticised the ODM board for allegedly using the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to abuse the legal process since the party had its own internal dispute resolution mechanism.
"It is wrong for ODM, which is the complainant in the case, to use the court process before extinguishing the fire in its own house. The party has its own internal dispute resolution mechanism that it should utilise before settling for the judicial process," said Mr Khatib.
The MP was later released on bond after Chief Magistrate Evans Makori deferred his plea-taking for 14 days.
