Warrant of arrest issued against Edgar Obare in Natalie Tewa case

Piece by: STANLEY NJENGA
Crime
Blogger Edgar Obare with his lawyer Titus Munene In Kiambu law courts when he was first charged.
Blogger Edgar Obare with his lawyer Titus Munene In Kiambu law courts when he was first charged.
Image: STANLEY NJENGA

A warrant of arrest on blogger Edgar Obare has been issued by a Kiambu court for absconding 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 www.bnn.ke and verified Instagram account @edgarobare, he disclosed to his online follower's personal data to wit visa belonging to one Natalie Wanjiru Githinji without her consent.

Natalie Wanjiru is a popular YouTuber known as Natalie Tewa.

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.

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.

Raila had travelled to Dubai to undergo surgery on his back. 

The court had ruled that the accused person should not publish anything concerning the matter.

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