The wife of London-based Kenyan preacher Gilbert Deya yesterday got a rude shock when she was re-arrested soon after being cleared of baby theft charges.
Ms Mary Deya was re-arrested immediately she walked out of a city court situated at City Hall in Nairobi.
She was arrested along with Miriam Nyeko and Rose Kiserem who had also been cleared of similar charges.
They were escorted to the Nairobi Law Courts under tight security in an unmarked vehicle.
The three could not hide their shock when two CID officers who were standing outside the courtroom whisked them away.
Their lawyers, Wandugi Kirathe, Odhiambo Wakla and Cliff Ombeta, however, demanded to know from the police officers why their clients were being re-arrested soon after the State had dropped the charges.
“We are re-arresting them because there are fresh charges, totally different from the previous ones. They have to go to the High Court to answer them,” said one officer.
The prosecution has entered a nolle prosequi on the initial baby theft charges.
The three face fresh charges of stealing an unnamed child, whom they have allegedly named Daniel Rwot-Omio, from an unknown parent.
It is alleged that on diverse dates between July 19 and August 19, this year at Mountain View Estate in Nairobi, they illegally harboured the child who is under 14 years.
Nyeko faces a second charge of fraudulently securing a birth certificate in the name of David Rwot Omio from the Civil Registrar. She allegedly pretended she was Omio’s biological mother.
Kirathe dismissed the fresh charges as an abuse of the court process and urged the court to release the three on lenient bond terms.
He said after the State dropped baby theft charges against Nyeko, the prosecutor William Kemboi promised the court that she would not be re-arrested.
He dismissed the second charge as an afterthought only meant to complicate the case and bond terms.
But Kemboi said the fresh charges arose out of new evidence.
The three were granted a bond of Sh1 million each with one surety in a similar amount. They were allowed to retain bonds and sureties used in earlier cases subject to verification.
The prosecution has lined up five witnesses.
