TV journalist Jackie Maribe is still detained at the Lang’ata Women prison despite the High Court granting her temporary freedom 24 hours earlier.
Maribe has been behind bars for the past two weeks after she was arrested over the murder of business woman Monica Kimani in September. While granting Maribe’s bail application, Justice James Wakiaga ordered the news anchor not to take part in interviews related to the murder case which has been set to hearing from June 18-27, 2019.
During the Tuesday court session, it emerged that Maribe was not intending to go back to the house where she was living with Irungu at the time of her arrest.
It is based on the revelation that Justice Wakiaga concluded that Irungu had no alternative accommodation given the fact that he was living in Maribe’s house at the time of his arrest.
However, despite her bail amount being paid by midday on Wednesday, Maribe was still in police custody.
This revelation was made public by Dennis Itumbi, a close friend of Maribe, who explained that efforts to secure her release had continuously been thwarted by authorities he did not name.
Itumbi, who works for the Presidency, blasted the deputy registrar’s office for ‘playing games’, a statement construed to imply some officials were intentionally detaining Maribe even after her bond terms had allegedly been met.
THREAD: Interesting events at the Deputy Registrar in the High Court. We completed the bond process for our friend Jacque Maribe at 12pm and till now no progress & she is looking at another night in prison despite being freed by The Court yesterday. Let me tell you of the games
— Dennis Itumbi, HSC (@OleItumbi) October 31, 2018
Yesterday, the same games were employed. The Deputy Registrar declined to sign the letter commiting documents to land registry and registrar of persons yesterday. We decided to wait for today
— Dennis Itumbi, HSC (@OleItumbi) October 31, 2018
This morning family and friends reported at the High Court at 7am and the Deputy Registrar signed a letter that was on her desk from last evening at 11am. No problem with that, we can live with that….
— Dennis Itumbi, HSC (@OleItumbi) October 31, 2018
Problem is after that we were told there is an order that "UPON release the investigating officer and the advocate will take an inventory of house" we argued that is UPON release. So they dropped that line…
— Dennis Itumbi, HSC (@OleItumbi) October 31, 2018
Next we needed a prosecutor from @ODPP_KE and obviously none was willing to get on record. So we decided to tweet.
— Dennis Itumbi, HSC (@OleItumbi) October 31, 2018
Just after the first tweet the calls that were not being picked by @DCI_Kenya and @ODPP_KE officials are now being returned quick and fast…..Asanteni
— Dennis Itumbi, HSC (@OleItumbi) October 31, 2018
In her application to be granted bail, Maribe denied any involvement in the murder of Monica and pleaded with the judge to consider the welfare of her four-year-old child who stands to suffer if his mother is locked up during the trial. According to Maribe, there are no convincing reasons that would justify denying her bail. She said that she has co-operated with the law enforcers and the court throughout the investigation.