Court acquits Mandera quarry workers
Twenty quarry workers who were sentenced to five months in jail by a Mandera Court for disobeying a police order have been freed by the Garissa High Court.
This is after the Director of Public Prosecutions through the Mandera state counsel Allen Mulama appealed against the decision.
The DPP had argued that the magistrate’s court sentence of five month jail term or a Sh60,000 fine each for the 20 quarry workers was excessive and unwarranted in the circumstances considering that the accused persons were only trying to eke a living out of the quarry fields.
The workers had pleaded guilty before a Mandera court to disobeying a lawful order issued by the Mandera East OCPD Ekai Maruk requiring them to vacate the quarries for security reasons.
While sentencing the 20 quarry miners, Mandera Resident Magistrate Duncan Mtai said the court had considered the accused persons’ mitigation.
THREAT TO SECURITY
He said though the offense the workers were charged with “is a misdemeanor, their conduct was an outright threat not only to security in Mandera but also to their own lives”.