Itumbi alleges foul play over delay in releasing Maribe
TV journalist Jackie Maribe was by Wednesday afternoon still detained at the Lang’ata Women prison despite the High Court granting her temporary freedom 24 hours earlier.
This revelation was made public by Dennis Itumbi, a close friend of Maribe, who explained that efforts to secure her release had continuously been thwarted by authorities he did not name.
Itumbi, who works for the Presidency, blasted the deputy registrar’s office for ‘playing games’, a statement construed to imply some officials were intentionally detaining Maribe even after her bond terms had allegedly been met.
CERTIFIED ALL DOCUMENTS
Nairobi News understands that the cash bail had been paid by midday and the land ministry and registrar of persons had certified all documents.
Here is Itumbi’s version of events:
THREAD: Interesting events at the Deputy Registrar in the High Court. We completed the bond process for our friend Jacque Maribe at 12pm and till now no progress & she is looking at another night in prison despite being freed by The Court yesterday. Let me tell you of the games
— Dennis Itumbi, HSC (@OleItumbi) October 31, 2018
Yesterday, the same games were employed. The Deputy Registrar declined to sign the letter commiting documents to land registry and registrar of persons yesterday. We decided to wait for today
— Dennis Itumbi, HSC (@OleItumbi) October 31, 2018
This morning family and friends reported at the High Court at 7am and the Deputy Registrar signed a letter that was on her desk from last evening at 11am. No problem with that, we can live with that….
— Dennis Itumbi, HSC (@OleItumbi) October 31, 2018
Problem is after that we were told there is an order that “UPON release the investigating officer and the advocate will take an inventory of house” we argued that is UPON release. So they dropped that line…
— Dennis Itumbi, HSC (@OleItumbi) October 31, 2018
Next we needed a prosecutor from @ODPP_KE and obviously none was willing to get on record. So we decided to tweet.
— Dennis Itumbi, HSC (@OleItumbi) October 31, 2018
Just after the first tweet the calls that were not being picked by @DCI_Kenya and @ODPP_KE officials are now being returned quick and fast…..Asanteni
— Dennis Itumbi, HSC (@OleItumbi) October 31, 2018
Maribe has been in custody for the past month. She is alongside her fiancé Joseph Irungu aka Jowie facing murder charges in relation to businesswoman Monica Kimani’s killing.
On Tuesday, court granted the journalist a Sh1 million cash bail and one surety of similar amount.