Death sentence
Police on Sunday held and grilled 11 MPs from the Northeastern region on allegations that they took a trip to Somalia without authorization from the Foreign Affairs ministry or National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi.
A senior official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated that the MPs may face treason charges and means the 11 MPs may face the noose under section 40 of the penal code. “It’s unacceptable, an affront to the Constitution and treasonable if you go to negotiate with a foreign country in matters of national security,” the officer said.
“2) Any person who, owing allegiance to the Republic –
(a) levies war in Kenya against the Republic; or
(b) is adherent to the enemies of the Republic, or gives them
aid or comfort, in Kenya or elsewhere; or
(c) instigates whether in Kenya or elsewhere any person to
invade Kenya with an armed force,
is guilty of the offence of treason.
(3) Any person who is guilty of the offence of treason shall be
sentenced to death.
Ahmed Kolosh (Wajir West), Ibrahim Abdi (Lafey), Rashid Kassim (Wajir East), Mohamed Hire (Lagdera), Omar Maalim (Mandera East), Bashir Abdullahi (Mandera North), Adan Haji (Mandera West), Kullow Maalim (Banisa), Adan Ali Sheikh (Mandera South), Dahir Mohamed (Dadaab) and Ahmed Bashane (Tarbaj) did not officially represent the Government of Kenya in the alleged meeting with Somalia’s president and members of the Somali National Intelligence Agency (NISA).
The MPs, who flew from Nairobi on Saturday morning, are alleged to have been facilitated by the Somali officials from the cost of flights to being chauffeured to Villa Somalia where they held a meeting with President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed alias Farmajo, before they were briefed by the war-torn nation’s intelligence chiefs.
“We were distressed that the leaders were in a foreign capital, cavorting with the leader of a foreign nation and thereafter being briefed by the equivalent of the director general of their intelligence service,” said the Foreign Affairs officer.
Police lay in wait for the lawmakers at Wilson Airport in Nairobi before moving to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) where the MPs were taken in for questioning as soon as they landed.
The MPs have insisted they had been cleared to travel by Parliament and did not require authorization from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They said their trip was in the interest of regional peace and stability.
