Embakasi East MP Babu Owino has filed an application seeking to be arraigned at Milimani High Court today.
In an application filed by his lawyer Duncan Okatch, Babu who was arrested on Tuesday at the JKIA in Nairobi, wants the court to order the Inspector of Police and the DCI to produce him before the High Court.
“An order that the 1st respondent and/or his representatives appear in person or by his duly authorized agents together with the original of any warrant or order of detention to show cause why the applicant should not be released forthwith,” Okatch said.
Okatch wants the DCI, police, or any other police officer in authority in the area where Babu is being detained to be ordered to release him on bail or under the terms and conditions that the court deems fit.
Read: Babu Owino Detained at Wanguru Police Station in Kirinyaga – Wife Discloses
“The said arrest and detention occurred on the morning of the first day of the three-day nationwide peaceful demonstrations organized by the Azimio One Kenya Alliance, in which the applicant is a fervent member and it was a notorious fact that the Applicant intended to take part in the said demonstrations,” court documents read.
Further, Okatch argued that Article 37 of the constitution ensures everyone’s right to peaceably and unarmed, to assemble, demonstrate, and present petitions to public authorities and as such, Babu’s detention was unlawful, illegal and affront to his rights.
By dint of Article 27 of The Constitution of Kenya, 2010, Okatch added, the lawmaker is still entitled to equal protection and benefit of the law despite being a member of the opposition.
“Unless this honourable court urgently intervenes and grants the orders sought in the instant application, the respondents will indeed be successful in utilising the criminal justice system to illegally detain, embarrass, disrepute, and even harm the applicant herein,” he added.
By the time of going to press, Babu was driven out of Wang’uru Police Station in Kirinyaga under tight security.
Embakasi East MP Babu Owino escorted out of Wang'uru Police Station in Kirinyaga under very tight police escort, destination unknown#MaandamanoWednesdayToFriday pic.twitter.com/kyEyFaL32J
— The Standard Digital (@StandardKenya) July 20, 2023
It is not clear where the cops have taken him.