![Alex Mahaga and another rugby player, Frank Wanyama, were on April 23 this year charged with rape. [PHOTO | K24 DIGITAL]](https://i0.wp.com/www.k24tv.co.ke/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/MAHAGA.jpg?resize=730%2C414&ssl=1)
An arrest warrant issued against Alex Mahaga, a Kenyan rugby player accused of rape, was lifted by a Nairobi court on Wednesday morning.
Chief Magistrate Martha Mutuku last Friday, July 12, ordered that Mahaga be arrested after he failed to appear in court for a ruling on his case.
On Wednesday, July 17, Principal Magistrate Kennedy Cheruiyot, sitting in for magistrate Mutuku, lifted the arrest warrant against the rugby player after he satisfactorily explained his absence from court last Friday.
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Mahaga said he was ailing, and, therefore, he was not in a position to attend court.
Mahaga and another rugby player, Frank Wanyama, were on April 23 this year charged with rape.
The suspects stare at a possible 15-year jail term should they be found guilty of the offence.
The two, who play for the Kenya Harlequin rugby team, are accused of gang-raping a musician at Seefar Apartments in Nairobi on February 10, 2019.
The alleged victim narrated on social media how the suspects allegedly drugged and, thereafter, sexually assaulted her, when she had shown up for a birthday party in their house.
The two, in April, denied the allegations before Nairobi Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi, and were released on cash bail.
A ruling on the case has been pushed back to August 5, 2019.
