Court drops hate speech charges against Muthama

Machakos Senator Johnstone Muthama can now breath a sigh of relief after the Milimani Law Courts dismissed hate speech charges against him.

Milimani Chief Magistrate, Daniel Ogembo, dismissed the charges against the Senator – who is facing similar charges- saying that it was an abuse of the court process and a duplication of a similar case facing the outspoken legislator.

Muthama, through his lawyer James Orengo, had applied for dismissal of the hate speech case filed by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions arguing that he was already facing a similar charge at the same court.

Two weeks ago, the court said it would rule on whether incitement to violence charges against the Machakos Senator would be dropped or not.

Justice Ogembo said that the court will make the determination after Muthama argued that the charges against him were defective.

In his argument, Muthama said that the charges amount to abuse of the court process adding that he was charged with similar charges in October 2015 and, therefore, the charges should be quashed.

“In October 2015, Muthama was charged in a Nairobi Court over utterances he had made at an Uhuru Park in a similar charge, why did it take them long to charge him?” Orengo submitted.

Muthama was last month charged alongside seven other lawmakers with incitement to violence where he pleaded not guilty and was released on a cash bail of Ksh 100,000.