Citizen TV journalist Jacque Maribe has been freed on bail but do you think she has freedom? Just like Migori Governor Okoth Obado, her release was granted but under strict conditions.
Is this even freedom? Justice James Wakiaga stated that her freedom would be subject to five conditions which she must meet, failure to which she would be re-arrested and held in jail during the trial period.
Maribe, has really sought for this bail that she has finally been granted but being a lady, she will have to strain to meet the set conditions.
The high Judge Wakiaga’s first set condition against Maribe states that she must not make any contact with witnesses in the case involving the murder of Monica Kimani. Will she even have time with her neighbors? I really doubt since some neighbors are witnesses in the case, having raised alarm to the police that Joseph Irungu alias Jowie was the last person seen in the compound of the slain business woman Monica Kimani.
Secondly, the judge in his ruling demanded that before returning to her house in Lang’ata, she must be accompanied by investigators and grant them full access to undertake an inventory of any evidence they might require in the murder case.
As if the conditions are not enough, the Citizen TV journalist was blocked from reading any news or conducting any interviews that touch on the murder of Monica Kimani murder case, though nobody imagines that she could even accept to air any content related to Monica’s murder.
Forthly, Maribe was ordered not to present news during the period of trial. This was after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) ruled that her presence on national TV would intimidate some of the witnesses.
The last condition is that during the period of the trial, the Citizen TV reporter shall not interview any parties, witnesses, or relatives of the late Monica Kimani.
We thought that Obado was the only one released on conditions but to Maribe, it has gone the same. Will she meet the set conditions?