A Nairobi court has issued summons to two investigative officers in charge of investigating the four filmmakers connected with the production of the ‘Blood Parliament’ documentary.
Milimani Principal Magistrate Wambo Otieno has ordered the Chief Inspector Nickson Kinywa and Mogah Wekesa Wechuli to appear before him on June 16, 2025.
Further, he has extended the interim orders he had issued earlier barring their arrest.
“I hereby extend the interim orders, and summon the Chief Inspector Nickson Kinywa and Mogah Wekesa Wechuli to appear before me on June 16, 2025,” Magistrate Wambo ordered.
This came after lawyer Ian Mutiso, representing the four – Nicholas Gichuki, Brian Adagala, MarkDenver Karubiu, and Chris Wamae asked the court to summon the two to clarify on some matters before they move to the High Court.
The court has also extended the anticipatory bail of Ksh10,000 it had granted each of them pending the ongoing investigations.
The court granted the four anticipatory bails after they filed an application under a certificate of urgency, seeking to be granted bail ahead of their appearance before the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) for questioning on May 21, 2025.
The four, through their lawyer Mutiso, argued that holding their clients longer would infringe on their constitutional rights.
Further, lawyer Mutiso told the court that the four have expressed their fears following their arrest, citing the current climate and ongoing arrests in the country.
In their application, the filmmakers sued the DCI, DCI boss Mohamed Amin, and the National Police Service (NPS), citing harassment without cause.
“The DCI and its boss, Mohamed Amin, are responsible for breaching Article 49 1(a)(c) of the Constitution, as the four herein were not accorded the right to counsel and information on the reason for their arrest and detention,” part of the application read.
Meanwhile, the DCI, through a miscellaneous application, sought to investigate various gadgets, including mobile phones, an iPad, hard drives/disks, flash drives, and laptop computers, among others, that were confiscated from their studios.
The DCI were seeking to investigate the four for the offence of publishing false information contrary to Section 23 of the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act No. 5 of 2018, among other offences.
Additionally, the DCI stated that their preliminary investigations into the alleged offences indicate that the applicants conspired with users of the YouTube channel accounts dubbed @BBCNewsSwahili and @BBCAfrica, and the website/blog/domain account bbc.com, to air the documentary.
The four were arrested on May 3, 2025, and taken to Muthaiga and Pangani police stations in Nairobi, days after the BBC aired part of the documentary revealing how several people were killed outside the National Assembly in June 2024 during anti-tax protests.
The matter will be mentioned on June 16, 2025, for further directions.
