Ex-news anchor Salim Swaleh, five others detained until Tuesday
Image: COURTESY

The Director of Press Service at the office of Prime Cabinet Secretary Swaleh Salim and five others have been detained until Tuesday when the court will rule on their detention.

Milimani principal magistrate Ben Mark Ekhubi said time was not on his side to make a ruling as it is past 5 pm considering the submissions by both the defence and the prosecution.

Ekhubi will rule whether he will detain the six pending investigations in the case of alleged extortion.

The suspects are Otieno Japolo Michael, Terry Kemunto, Daniel Omondi Gogo, Salim Swaleh Abdullah, John Musundi Wabomba and James William Mokoha.

Through their lawyers led by Danstan Omari, they have requested bail pending investigations stating that the police have not provided compelling reasons to detain them.

"Your honour this is a tactic to have Swaleh dismissed from work. He is innocent because the police have not stated who the complainant is in the case," Omari said.

He added that the suspects are not a flight risk and should be granted bail.

In a miscellaneous application, the police have sought for 14 days to detain the suspects pending investigations.