Fifteen out of the seventeen youths that had been arrested for their alleged involvement in the stoning of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s helicopter have been set free.
An Eldoret Magistrate Court on Wednesday, April 13, 2022, set free the fifteen after the prosecution said they had no evidence to charge them.
Eldoret Senior Resident Magistrate Emily Kigen issued the ruling when the matter came up for mention.
Kigen had a few days ago allowed the police to hold the suspects for 10 more days, to finalize their investigations.
But when the matter came up for mention, prosecution team led by Richard Polo said fifteen of the suspects had no case to answer.
Two more youths are however not yet off the hook, as the prosecution preferred three charges against them among – willfully and unlawfully destroying an aircraft, malicious damage to property and causing disturbance in a manner likely to cause a breach of peace.
The two are Abednego Kiptanui Kemboi and Kenneth Kipkogey Sawe.
They both pleaded not guilty to the charges and were leased on a cash bail of Ksh300,000 each.
The prosecution has lined up nine witnesses in the case that relates to an incident in which a helicopter carrying former Prime Minister Raila Odinga was alledgedly stoned on April 1, 2022.
Raila was in Kabenes, Soy Sub County in Uasin Gishu County during the burial of the late prominet farmer, businessman and politician Mzee Jackson Kibor.
Mention for the case has been set for May 9, 2022.
The stoning of the helicopter attracted wide condemnation from across the political divide, with Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i saying the incident was planned.
So far three politician Kapseret Member of Parliament Oscar Sudi his Soy counterpart Caleb Kositany and Uasin Gishu County Assembly Speaker David Speaker have recorded their statements in relation to the incident.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) had said preliminary investigations indicated that the three coordinated and funded the attack.
No charges have been preferred against them, as at now.
