Sunday Nation’s Walter Menya released without charge
After two days in police dungeons, Nation writer Walter Menya has finally walked to freedom.
Senior Principal Magistrate Martha Mutuku released Mr Menya on a free bond on Tuesday at 4pm.
This was after State lawyer Daniel Karuri informed the court that Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko had directed that the journalist be freed.
FREE BOND
Mr Tobiko asked the Milimani court in Nairobi to release Mr Menya on a free bond without being charged.
However, police are free to summon the writer between now and next week when parties return to court.
The court will determine whether police should continue holding the journalist’s phone, laptop and flash discs that they seized on Sunday when they searched his house in Embakasi without a warrant.
SOLICITING A BRIBE
Mr Menya was arrested and locked up on Sunday on claims of “soliciting a bribe to write a damaging story”.
His accuser was one Kennedy Kiprotich Koros, a faceless character who introduced himself as a news source only to ensnare the writer at a Nairobi hospital before police pounced on him.
According to police, the writer’s woes stem from the article he penned on Friends of Jubilee Foundation in the Sunday Nation under the title “Civil servants in JP foundation say all they want is to alleviate poverty”.
The officers were planning to charge the writer with “demanding property with menace”.