A Kenyan high court has released Halima Ngache, who was arrested over allegations of tracking President William Ruto’s flights and posting the information online.
Her release follows the closure of the investigation by police in line with the high court that she be freed forthwith.
This is after Senior Principal Magistrate Teresia Nyangena rejected a second bid by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) for more time to complete investigations and conduct further forensic examination of her electronic devices.
The ruling comes days after High Court Judge Alexander Muteti on Friday ordered that Ngache be released from custody by 5 pm, the same day, while separately considering her application challenging the legality of her arrest, detention and the seizure of her electronic devices.
This is after Nyangena on Thursday last week granted DCI detectives three days to continue detaining her to complete investigations.
When the parties appeared before Magistrate Nyangena on Monday for an update on the progress of investigations, the investigating officer, Corporal Edwin Metto, informed the court that forensic examination of the electronic devices recovered from Ngache was still ongoing.
However, Ngache’s lawyers led by Ndegwa Njiru, Ian Mutiso and Senator Dan Maanzo strongly opposed the application, arguing that the investigators were seeking to rely on electronic devices that had been unlawfully obtained.
Lawyer Njiru argued that the court could not extend investigations based on gadgets whose seizure was already under legal challenge.
Lawyer Maanzo representing Ngache also questioned the manner in which she was arrested and transported from Mombasa to Nairobi, telling the court that she had been searched and escorted by male officers contrary to police standing orders governing the arrest of female suspects.
After hearing both sides, Magistrate Nyangena observed that there was no substantive application before her seeking an extension of the miscellaneous proceedings.
She subsequently marked the miscellaneous application as closed and ordered Ngache’s immediate release.
Ngache was arrested by detectives from the DCI Serious Crimes Unit over allegations that she operated the X account @sholard_mancity, which investigators claim published President Ruto’s flight routes and travel information.
In their application, police had sought to detain Halima for three days from July 1 to investigate her for offences under the Serious Crimes Act.
MG/as/APA