The High Court has certified an application by Pokot South Member of Parliament David Pkosing seeking to bar his arrest and prosecution as urgent.
Justice Diana Mochache further directed that the application be heard inter partes on 23rd February at 3 PM.
Pkosing also wants the court to admit him to anticipatory bail or bond.
The MP moved to court seeking to be admitted on bail or bond pending the hearing and determination of the application after his arrest on 16th February 2023.
Through lawyer Danstan Omari, the MP wants the court to issue consevatory orders restraining the Director of Criminal Investigations, the Inspector General of Police and the Director of Public Prosecution their servants, agents, junior officers or anybody from arresting, charging or harassing him.
In his application, Pkosing argues that on 16th February at around 5.30 pm, while leaving his office at Intercontinental House in Nairobi, he was arrested and whisked away to DCI headquarters along Kiambu road where he was interrogated, recorded a statement and later released at 11pm.
This was allegedly in connection to funding of banditry in Northern Kenya, allegations which the MP vehemently denies.
“He had been informed that he was arrested in connection to funding of banditry within the troubled north which allegation is farfetched and baseless,” Omari said in the application.
The court heard that upon his release, the MP was issued with a requisition to appear at the DCI headquarters on the 17th February at 8.00 am, which he obediently adhered to.
According to the MP’s lawyer, upon honouring the said summons that morning, he was verbally turned away and informed by the DCI Officers to appear at the DCI offices in the afternoon and to be precise 4.30 pm.
He was further informed that the DCI was now investigating him for the offense of money laundering.
The legislator is apprehensive that the intent of requiring him to visit DCI offices at 4.30 PM on a Friday was to lock him up until Monday.
The court heard that Pkosing has never received any other summons requiring him to appear before any police station or investigative agency.
He avers that news of his imminent arrest was widely circulated and reported by various media houses and on social media platforms and is apprehensive that the police will raid his home and arrest him.
“The National Police Service has already demonstrated malicious intent and a clear disregard for the rule of law by abusing due process as evidenced by the unwarranted arrest and speedy transfer to DCI HQ offices without availing him an opportunity to appear before the said offices on his own.
Pkosing told the court that he is a law-abiding citizen, ready and willing to submit himself to a just and fair legal process in which his fundamental rights and freedoms are respected and protected.
