A section of the Mombasa Law Courts. [Photo/ the-star.co.ke]
A middle-aged man was on Monday arraigned before a Mombasa Court to answer to charges of assaulting a female voter during Thursday‘s repeat presidential election.Fredrick Ochieng Omondi is accused of assaulted Kawila Kulela Joseph in Likoni area a few hours before she left her home to participate in the voting exercise, following the nullification of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s win by the Supreme Court.The court heard that Omondi allegedly assaulted Kawila at around 10.00am, with the intention of preventing her from exercising her democratic right. Kawila is reported to have planned to go to the polling station in the afternoon, but Omondi learned about her plans and allegedly assaulted her, Baraka FM has reported. In a sworn affidavit, the accused pleaded not guilty to the charges of assault causing actual bodily harm.Omondi is reported to have also allegedly threatened to kill Kawila if she dared to vote.This comes after NASA leader Raila Odinga withdrew from the repeat presidential election and urged his supporters to boycott the exercise, arguing there was no need of participating in an already predetermined poll.