Court Orders Mental Test for Malindi MP Aisha Jumwa and Her Bodyguard in Murder Case

A Mombasa court has ordered Malindi MP Aisha Jumwa and her aide be taken to the hospital for mental assessment pending plea taking in a murder case.

Jumwa appeared before Justice Njoki Mwangi of Mombasa law courts on Monday alongside her bodyguard, Geoffrey Okuto Otieno.

The court directed the two to undergo the mental test at the Coast General Hospital and be remanded until Thursday when they are expected to plead to murder and assault charges. 

Last week, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji approved the trial of Jumwa and her bodyguard over the killing of a man during the Ganda Ward by-election in October 2019.

The man was shot dead after MP Jumwa and her supporters stormed a meeting organized by Reuben Katana, the ODM candidate in the by-election.

Jumwa, who arrived at the meeting in a convoy of several vehicles, accused Katana of doing campaigns long after the official campaign window elapsed.

But ODM officials insisted that the meeting was meant for training of their agents ahead of the voting day. ODM’s Katana went ahead to win the highly-contested by-election.

Jumwa was arrested and arraigned alongside her bodyguard and later released on Sh500,000 cash bail over the incident in which several people including police officers were injured.