A court has granted journalist Laban-Cliff Onserio a cash bail of Sh100,000 pending his plea-taking on criminal charges involving allegations of being in possession of a grenade and threatening to use it to attack.
Senior Principal Magistrate Boaz Ombewa sitting at Kahawa Law Court also gave Mr Onserio an alternative of depositing a bond of Sh300,000.
The plea-taking taking was deferred since Mr Onserio’s lawyer was not present in court.
The nature of the alleged offence levelled against him required a lawyer, State Prosecutor Jillo Guyo said.
Requesting the court to grant him freedom, Mr Onserio said that he had spent over 14 days in police custody and he wished to deposit security so that he can join his family in celebrating the New Year holiday.
The journalist, who is also the Standard Media Group’s Chief of Staff, was arrested by detectives from the Anti-Terror Police Unit (ATPU) on December 20 over allegations of being in possession of a grenade.
He initially served as a Deputy Director of Communications at the defunct State House’s Presidential Delivery Unit (PDU) during President Uhuru Kenyatta’s era.
Police said he was arrested at Nairobi’s Holy Family Basilica basement (2) by detectives after the grenade was found in his car by officers who had been called in by the church’s guards to respond to an altercation that involved him.
The cathedral runs a commercial parking facility that is manned by a private security company on a 24-hour basis.
Police said Mr Onserio could not give satisfactory reasons why he had the flash-bang grenade and did not produce a certificate allowing him to own the said explosive device.
An affidavit filed in court by the police indicated that Mr Onserio told detectives that he acquired the grenade from a British national working with Fly 540.
The magistrate deferred the plea-taking to January 10, 2023.
