Court throws out MP Kurias case seeking mobile phone records

A Nairobi court has dismissed an application by Gatundu South Member of Parliament Moses Kuria seeking it to compel Mobile Services Provider Safaricom to release to him phone records of the Law Society of Kenya CEO Apollo Mboya, who he accuses of forwarding his name to the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC).

Kuria had told the court that he intended to use the phone records in his defence accusing Mboya of maliciously forwarding his name to NCIC over allegations of hate speech.

Mboya had testified that he had received calls from people complaining of Kuria’s tweets, something Kuria says is not true and the more reason Safaricom should be compelled to release the phone records.

Senior Principal Magistrate Teresa Nyangene said the application was baseless as the suit had not reached a case to answer stage to warrant him to produce defence evidence.

The case will be heard between December 1^stand 3^rd, 2015.

Kuria had earlier in the year been arraigned in court for making ethnic slurs on social media, and secured a Ksh 2 million cash bail but on condition that he ceases posting hate messages on Facebook.

The National Cohesion and Integration Commission, however, sought to have the bail terms cancelled after Kuria breached the conditions.

Kuria’s remarks are also in contravention to Chapter 6 of the Constitution of Kenya on leadership and integrity that requires all public and state officers to always uphold the dignity of the offices they hold.

Kuria was also accused of making inflammatory remarks during a rally in his constituency where he told residents to take up pangas and slash anyone who opposes the National Youth Service (NYS) project.

The order came just a day after The National Alliance party (TNA) summoned the Gatundu South MP to the party’s disciplinary committee over the allegations of incitement to violence.

The National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) had also written to the Chief Justice, Inspector General of Police and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPPs) seeking action to be taken against Kuria.

Kuria was then grilled by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officers at the CID headquarters over his remarks.

According to NCIC chairman Francis Ole Kaparo, Kuria’s comments are reason enough to have him behind bars.

The Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Keriako Tobiko also added that he had made an application of urgency to the court seeking the cancellation of Kuria’s bail that will see the him face further charges for separate criminal offences  relating to his latest utterance.