A warrant of arrest on blogger Edgar Obare has been issued by a Kiambu court for not attending the court hearings twice.
Resident Magistrate Rita Orora issued the warrant where Obare is out on a cash bail of Ksh 100,000 after denying charges that he used his social media accounts, domain name and verified Instagram account @edgarobare to disclose to online follower’s personal data to wit visa belonging to one Natalie Wanjiru Githinji A.k.A without her consent.
The matter was up for hearing through virtual means on Wednesday but the blogger did not appear with prosecutor Stella Oyagi requesting the court to issue a warrant of arrest.
Oyagi told the court that they were ready with four witnesses to testify. The complainant was in court ready to testify.
As reported by mpasho news, On March 31, this year the accused also failed to appear before court in the hearing of the case and the prosecution had also requested for a warrant of arrest but the accused lawyer Titus Munene said that the accused was away in Kisumu and could not appear due to the covid-19 lockdown.
The court denied the request for warrant of arrest ruling that due to covid-19 pandemic and there being a lockdown in zoned areas where Kiambu county was one of them and the accused is out of the zoned areas.
The court took another hearing date of August 4, 2021.
Obare was arrested in July 2020 in Kisumu and taken to DCI headquarters in Nairobi for questioning.
He had published passport details of Githinji, with a visa alleging she had travelled to Dubai. At the time, international flights had been suspended.
Obare linked Githinji’s travel to that of two legislators – Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho and Suna East MP Junet Mohamed – who had also travelled to Dubai to visit ODM leader Raila Odinga.
