A magistrate dropped assault charges against Kenyan First Lady Lucy Kibaki after the attorney general said neither police nor prosecutors have had time to investigate whether she had slapped a television news cameraman on World Press Freedom Day.
Senior Principal Magistrate Rosemelle Mutoka said on Wednesday she had reservations about Attorney General Amos Wako’s request, but was bound by law to accept it.
”I’m so disappointed. We need a new Constitution because the vulnerable have no rights in this country,” Clifford Derrick Otieno, of Kenya Television Network, told journalists after hearing the ruling.
The president’s wife stormed into the newsroom of Kenya’s largest newspaper with her security detail on May 3 — coincidentally World Press Freedom Day — demanding journalists be arrested for what she considered biased coverage. Otieno said she slapped him to stop him from filming the confrontation.
On Monday, Otieno had filed a private prosecution case against Kibaki for assault and malicious damage to property, which Wako immediately sought to take over and end, as the attorney general is allowed to do under Kenyan law.
Otieno’s lawyer told journalists that he will ask the Constitutional Court to review the attorney general’s action in the case.
”We are not satisfied. In the next few hours, we will file a constitutional application. We want to exhaust all avenues available in Kenya,” said Gitobu Imanyara, Otieno’s lawyer. ”We will not rest until Lucy Kibaki is brought to book.” — Sapa-AP