A Nairobi court today acquitted Kabete MP Fernand Waititu of charges of incitement to violence for lack of evidence.
Trial magistrate Joyce Gandani terminated the case on the grounds that prosecution has failed to prove the two charges against the legislator.
Waititu was facing charges that he allegedly called for the eviction of Masaai’s in Kayole area .
In her ruling the magistrate said that the prosecution has completely failed to prove that the accused actually uttered words that led to the slaughter of two members of the Maasai community in Nairobi’s Kayole estate.
The magistrate also noted that Waititu was by then Embakasi MP when he allegedly uttered the words and according to the evidence availed by five prosecution witnesses who were all senior police officers there is no prove that those who killed the Masaai’s were incited by the accused.
“There is no directed evidence that the accused incited the members of the public on the material day,”said Gandani.
She also said that no video clips recording were produced in court to prove that Waititu uttered the words since a key prosecution witness who recorded the video went missing even when he was put under witness protection agency.
The magistrate,however said that the director of witness protection agency violated the law by allowing the witness to leave without prosecution knowledge.The witness has gone missing for more than two years.
During the hearing of the case former deputy DCIO Kayole chief inspector John Wainaina told the court that he charged Waititu with incitement to violence after establishing that he actually uttered words that led to the slaughter of two members of the Maasai community in Nairobi’s Kayole estate.
Wainaina who is the investigating officer in the case also told court that he recommended Waititu to be charged with two charges of hate speech and incitement to violence after satisfying from various witnesses including senior police officers who were at the scene of incident.
The officer told the court that the politician addressed the crowd telling them to kick out ” all Maasai’s in the area” where he was by then Embakasi MP and now the current MP for Kabete.
