Kenya comedian and 16 artists arraigned in court for demonstrating against high cost of living

NAIROBI, Kenya

Kenya comedian, Eric Omondi and 16 other content creators were charged Friday with taking part in unlawful assembly outside Parliament, Nairobi, following their protest against the high cost of living.

They were apprehended on Tuesday, after staging a sit-down on the road and attempting to storm into Parliament.

In their protests, they had demanded to speak to National Assembly Speaker, Moses Wetang'ula about the rising cost of living in Kenya.

Before Milimani Chief Magistrate Lucas Onyina on Wednesday, the 17 denied the charge and pleaded for release on a "reasonable' cash bail of not more than 5,000 Kenya shillings or personal bonds. 

In his arguments for their release, their lawyer Danstan Omari said they were content creators whose intention was to push government to tame the rising cost of living.

"All these persons are international content creators. They went to Parliament to agitate for measures that will deal with the current high cost of living in the country. I urge the court to take the judicial notice that six million Kenyans are on the verge of hunger as per the government report." Mr Omari said.

"The young men represented 55 million Kenyans [in telling] Parliament to tame the high cost of living. The State has criminalized these national heroes fighting for the whole country. The people cannot afford food on their tables."

Mr Omondi and the 16 others were released on 20,000 Kenya shillings bond or 10,000 Kenya shillings cash bail each.

The case will be mentioned on March 6 for a pretrial conference.