Standard Group's Laban Cliff Onserio on Tuesday, January 10 filed a request to have his case settled out of court after he was charged with possession of explosives in a Nairobi church.
Through his lawyer Ishmael Nyaribo, the journalist wrote to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (ODPP) seeking an alternative to prosecution.
With this request, Standard Group's Chief of Staff is seeking an out-of-court process to handle the case.
According to the prosecution led by Jilo Guyo, "The matter is coming up for plea-taking. The accused through his counsel wrote to ODPP to consider an alternative to prosecution.
We are considering the request and we need a week to take a decision on the request,’’
Onserio requested the court to grant him bail or bond so as to join his family in celebrating the new year.
In his appeal, he decried that he had spent 14 days in police custody and thus wished to deposit security for the same.
He is out on bail of Ksh 100,000 awaiting plea taking on criminal charges with an option of Ksh 300,000 bond.
Cliff became a guest of the state after the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) on December 2022 sought to detain him for five days to allow the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) to investigate a case where he was arrested with an explosive inside his car.
Detectives accused the journalist of failing to declare to the security guards that he was in possession of the flash-bang training system grenade.
He also reportedly failed to provide a certificate to show that he legally owned the grenade, according to the prosecutor who arraigned him at the Kahawa Courts.
Onserio who who previously worked with the Presidential Delivery Unit, under President Uhuru Kenyatta, joined Standard Media Group in 2021.
