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Babu Owino to spend seven more days in remand – VIDEO

By Amina Wako January 20th, 2020 2 min read

Embakasi East Member of Parliament Paul Ongili alias Babu Owino will spend seven more days at the Industrial Area remand prison after the court denied him bail on Monday.

The court on Monday ordered that a probation bail report be filed by the probation department within seven days before Owino’s application for bail is determined.

According to Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi, the views of the victim, Felix Orinda Odhiambo, on whether the lawmaker should be granted bail or not have not been mentioned.

“In all that submission there have been no mention of the views from the victim as required under the Victim’s Act. The court is of the view that given the gravity of the charges, the victim’s views have to be taken to account,”Andayi said.

Babu Owino was charged with attempted murder but pleaded not guilty to shooting Felix Orinda alias DJ Evolve at B-Club located along Galana Road in Nairobi last week.

While pushing for his release on bail, the legislator’s lawyer Cliff Ombeta challenged the prosecution’s plea to detain the lawmaker on the ground that he could tamper with witnesses.

Ombeta argued that the prosecution had no proof to warrant the detention of his client, whom he described as a family man and a member of parliament who needed to resume duty.

“The accused person is the one that took the victim to hospital. He has gone ahead and paid Ksh.600,000 from his pocket to Nairobi Hospital for his treatment. He is a family man, he cooperated with police in every step and is a Member of Parliament who has to go back to work,” added Ombeta.

The prosecution rubbished the claim by Ombeta that Babu covered the medical bill, saying the documents were dated January 18, a day after Babu was arrested and put in police custody.

The prosecution argued that it was impossible for Babu to have facilitated the treatment of the victim while in police custody.

Friends who visited DJ Evolve on the fateful day said he was scheduled to undergo a second operation to remove a blood clot in his neck after doctors managed to remove the bullet lodged in his neck.

The Chief Magistrate, while defending his reason for remanding the legislator for seven days, opined that the high court once extended a remand period due to the logistics required to prepare the bail report.

Defense lawyer Danstan Omari wanted the court to remand Babu at Gigiri Police station, a request declined by the court.

The Embakasi East legislator was arrested on Friday and booked at Kilimani police station over the shooting of Dj Evolve, who was rushed to Nairobi Hospital and in stable condition.

On Saturday he was secretly transferred to Gigiri Police station where he spent the whole weekend.