Kilifi Deputy Governor Gideon Saburi will spend three more days in police custody after the court granted the prosecution’s request to detain him longer.
The prosecution sought more time to complete investigations but wanted the court to detain Saburi for 14 days, saying that the Kilifi leader cannot be trusted to quarantine himself.
On Monday, the prosecutor, Edge Mulamula, told the court that medical experts at the Coast General Hospital’s isolation centre had recommended that Saburi stays at home in self-imposed quarantine for another 14 days until a final Covid-19 test is done.
Saburi got himself in trouble after he defied the government’s directive to self-quarantine following a trip to Germany on March 6.
After Saburi landed in Kenya from Germany, he is said to have attended four burials, weddings and other social gatherings in Bamburi, Mombasa.
Hence, the prosecutor wanted Saburi held at the Manyani GK Prison for the 14-day quarantine ordered by medical experts, warning that locals angered by the DG’s alleged actions might attack him.
But Saburi’s lawyer, George Kithi, contested the prosecutor’s request, saying that the deputy governor should not be committed to a correctional facility since no charges have been levelled against him yet.
Kithi told the court that was no evidence to show that the deputy governor had at any point tested positive for Covid-19 and that he was wrongly accused by the state.
"Medical report from Cast General Hospital isolation center have not indicated anywhere that the DG was positive, only instruction is another 14 days of quarantine outside isolation centre. Hence there is nothing to prove that he infected any residents,” said Kithi.
