Jamila’s Memo: Law or common sense, DJ Evolve deserves justice

On my memo, I am giving a voice to DJ Evolve, the once vibrant young man known as Felix Orinda, who is now literally almost voiceless.

Also Read: ‘Babu shoots the messenger,’ NTV reponds to lawsuit threat from Babu Owino

I am not a lawyer and so I am not even going to attempt to engage in any legal arguments. I will instead call in the weight of logic and common sense.

Let us get the basics right: 1) DJ Evolve was shot 2) the shooting was captured on camera and 3) the gun was in the hands of Embakasi East MP Babu Owino.

We may never know the magic of the written law, maybe the eyes of the law may see these facts differently, but I want to speak from the perspective of the plain human eye.

And the facts again as I have stated 1) DJ Evolve was shot, 2) the shooting was captured on camera and 3) the gun was in the hands of the Embakasi East MP.

I have repeated these basics for the benefit of the ODPP which this week came under fire from an army of common sense warriors who see the facts just as they had happened one night at a club in the Nairobi suburbs.

This memo understands where the common sense warriors are coming from. They are coming from the simple point of view that a crime was committed. The victim is known and the suspects are also known but seemingly there has been inaction on the part of law enforcement agencies.

The common sense warriors have also wondered why the suspect and victim are openly living in the opposite ends of fortune: DJ Evolve lays helpless, paralyzed and dependent on others to stay alive and perform simple everyday tasks yet on the other hand the legislator is living it out and loud like a really fortunate member of the privileged Kenyan political community.

DJ Evolve’s life is an evolving mystery and Babu Owino’s life in his own words is the future of Kenya.

Back to the ODPP, there was that tweet to the effect that DJ Evolve’s condition is such that he is unable to give a statement. With God’s grace DJ Evolve is alive but I wonder how the ODPP collects statements from say victims of murder?

We have seen the ODPP vigorously pursue cases in which the victims actually did not live to tell their tales. I want to submit that a murder victim would be way less audible than a victim of attempted murder such as DJ Evolve.

That is why many of the country’s common sense warriors must have found the ODPP tweet rather absurd. Granted, sources have confirmed that there have been some frustrations in accessing DJ Evolve’s family and recording statements.

We have also observed on social media inconsistent voices within the family: some suggesting that they have no real complaints about the prevailing situation, but our laws dictate that on criminal matters the State has the ultimate say. In fact, if the case were to go to court DJ Evolve’s family would not be the complainant, the State would be.

I promised not to talk about the law but at least i want to talk about justice. DJ Evolve is a stain on the fabric of the Kenya criminal justice system.

He may have sounded voiceless but that should be one of the loudest cries for justice we have heard in recent times.

So to the authorities, consume as much of the criminal procedure code has to offer but this is one of those crimes that happened in the full glare of cameras, and as they say, cameras don’t lie.

DJ Evolve was shot, and the MP was holding the gun and present at the scene of a crime. Law or common sense DJ Evolve deserves justice.

And that is my memo.

Jamila Mohamed is a Managing Editor at Citizen TV