Journalist
Witnesses in a case in which a veteran journalist is facing incitement to violence charges told a Kithimani court that the scribe is being falsely accused.
David Kaloki, Benedetta Kalondu and Maingi Ngwili while testifying in a case in which the journalist, Francis Kilango is charged with inciting Ekalakala bodaboda operators to attack and injure the area sub chief over a missing chairperson told Senior Principal Magistrate Benson Sikuku that the accusations were baseless.
Kaloki said infact Kilango, a Thika based journalist, knew nothing about the missing rider, and he only learned of it when taking his sick wife to a nearby hospital.
“I was ferrying the journalist and his wife to hospital in Ekalakala when we heard bodaboda riders hooting, raising suspicion. That’s when Kilango got interested and sent me to his home to get him his video camera. He then went to interview the riders about the incident,” Kaloki said.
Kalondu, the mother of the alleged missing rider, told the court at the time the alleged tensions and chaos arose; Kilango was interviewing some of them about 30 metres away.
“I was waiting to be interviewed over my missing son when one of the bodaboda operators raised alarm that my son might have been killed and dumped in a nearby bush. He said he found his helmet and scarf inside a thicket nearby. This raised tension and that’s how the interview ended,” she said.
A Case in which a veteran Thika based journalist is facing incitement to violence charges ongoing before a Kithimani court.
The area bodaboda deputy chairperson Maingi Ngwili exonerated Kilango from the alleged chaos saying he was away from the incident conducting interviews.
He wondered how the sub chief claims he was attacked in the full glare of several armed police officers. Kilango is accused of inciting boda boda operators to attack and injure Ekalakala assistant chief Timothy Kivati on June 23, 2018.
He has since denied the charges and has been out on bond. Kilango has maintained he is being crucified for doing his job of exposing the local administration as sand cartels. According to reports, the assistant chief and the missing boda boda rider had a long-standing feud over the illegal sand harvesting business.
The case continues on June 6, 2024.
