(RSF/IFEX) – On 15 August 2006, Prosecutor Mureithi Mate told a court that the attorney general has instructed him to “have the case withdrawn” against opposition daily “Kenya Times” editor Onyango Omollo and one of his reporters, David Ochami, who had been the target of criminal proceedings over an article in 2005 that was considered […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 15 August 2006, Prosecutor Mureithi Mate told a court that the attorney general has instructed him to “have the case withdrawn” against opposition daily “Kenya Times” editor Onyango Omollo and one of his reporters, David Ochami, who had been the target of criminal proceedings over an article in 2005 that was considered alarmist.
Mate gave no reason for the decision, nor any assurance that the case would not be revived at a later date.
The offending article, published on 25 September 2005, referred to the possibility of a coup resulting from President Mwai Kibaki’s decision to hold a referendum on a controversial plan to amend the constitution. The proposed new constitution ended up being rejected in the referendum held on 21 November.
