/ 14 May 2001

TREASON CHARGE AGAINST KENYAN MP DROPPED

KENYAN authorities on Monday dropped a treason charge against an opposition member of parliament accused of calling for the killing of President Daniel arap Moi and instead charged him with incitement to violence, Kenyan state-run radio reported. Maina Kamanda, MP for the Starehe constituency in Nairobi and member of the Democratic Party, had 10 days ago been charged with treason, a capital offence, in a magistrate’s court in the central town of Embu. Kamanda had allegedly told a public rally in the central town of Meru on April 28 that Moi should be shot at night if he tried to stay in office after his second term expires next year. Whether or not Moi will stand down at the end of his current term is a constant topic of speculation in Kenya, where the constitution limits the president to two terms.