Standard Group Chief of Staff and journalist Cliff Onserio will be a state guest even during Christmas festivities.
Mr Onsario was given more days to remain behind the bar after a Kahawa law courts Senior Resident Magistrate Oscar Wanyaga objected a request by the Anti-Terror Police Unit (ATPU) on Friday asking them to be granted ten more days to complete investigations, but the magistrate turned down the application saying there was no justification for such.
Journalist Cliff Onserio was nabbed at the Holy Family Basilica church parking lot last Sunday, in a possession of a grenade inside his car. It is still not yet clear what the intention of the journalist was with the firearm. The journalist would later be arrested by a multi-agency team, who made a swift response after calls were made that there was a terror threat at the church area.
When he was making the ruling, magistrate Oscar Wanyaga was categorical that someone would only be deemed guilty after there is enough evidence to pin him down with. “The law says the moment you realise there is no evidence, you release. The moment you find evidence, you charge. An accused person – and in our case journalist Cliff Onserio – is presumed innocent until proven guilty,” said magistrate Wanyaga. He was responding to requests made by the law enforcement officers that the journalist be detained for ten days.
“I’m therefore not convinced that there is a justification for 10 days. Consequently, in the interest of justice and public safety and the weight of this matter, I’m going to grant this application but with a modification. I will grant the police up to December 29 to complete their investigations,” the magistrate ruled.
Earlier on, in an affidavit by constable Vincent Mutai, the police had ascertained that journalist Cliff Onserio had been found with the explosive in his car but could not give satisfactory reasons why he was in possession of the explosive.
