Boy who trespassed into State House acquitted
A 15 year-old boy who scaled the parameter wall around State House Nairobi two weeks ago to seek assistance from President Uhuru Kenyatta to record his music has been discharged conditionally from custody.
A jovial Mathew Maina Kinuthia apologised to President Kenyatta for using unlawful means in an effort to reach him.
“I sincerely apologise to the President for using unlawful means to seek him,” Maina told journalists outside Milimani Law Courts Nairobi.
Maina, who said that he wanted to become a judge, had been charged with entering a protected zone illegally.
But after it emerged that the accused was not an adult, local musician Charles Kanyi aka Jaguar and music promoter Joe Kariuki of Candy n Candy Records come out publicly and offered to help the boy.
“I have already sought a secondary school in Limuru to take Maina to,” Mr Kariuki said after the boy’s release.
KEEP GOOD COMPANY
Chief magistrate Daniel Ogembo ordered Maina not to engage in any form of crime for a period of two years.
Ogembo also directed the father of the minor, Mr John Kinuthia Maina to ensure that his son keeps good company for the two years failure to which the charge of trespassing into a prohibited area will be evoked afresh.
Lawyer Steve Kimathi who was defending Maina had urged the court to invoke Section 35 of the Penal Code to conditionally discharge the minor from custody.
“The law does not permit a minor to be locked up in cells with adults. I urge this court to conditionally discharge this minor from custody so that he can be corrected,” Mr Kimathi applied.
Maina who denied being a member of the Al Shabaab terror group said he dropped from Kieni High School in Subukia Nakuru County due to lack of school fees last year when he was in Form One.