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Itumbi charged with authoring false document on Ruto’s alleged assassination plot

Dennis Itumbi during a past court appearance on the same matter. Photo/CFM-FILE.

NAIROBI, Kenya Jul 22 – State House Digital director Dennis Itumbi was on Monday charged with authoring a false document on the alleged assassination of Deputy President William Ruto.

Itumbi was arraigned before senior Principal Magistrate Kennedy Cheruiyot at the Milimani Law Courts where he denied the charge.

“Your honour this is a ridiculous charge,” Itumbi told the court when the charge was read out to him.

The court heard that the accused is alleged to have committed the offence on June 30.

He denied the offence and was freed on a Sh100,000 cash bail and ordered to deposit his passport in court.

The prosecution had opposed to Itumbi’s release, but the Magistrate dismissed the application saying there was no evidence placed before him to prove the accused will interfere with investigations given his influence and being an officer based at the Office of the President.

Itumbi is represented in the case by lawyers Katwa Kigen and Moses Cheleng’a.
The case will be mentioned on September 2 and 3.

Itumbi was arrested by detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) department two weeks ago following a investigation on a letter that circulated on the social media, purpoted to have been authored by a Cabinet Secretary raising a red flag on a meeting said to have been held to plan the assassination of the DP.
Police later dismissed the letter as fake and pointed finger at Itumbi, who equally denies any role.

The investigation on the alleged assassination was launched following a complaint by the DP to President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is reported to have directed the DCI to get to the bottom of the matter.

Cabinet Secretaries Peter Munya, Sicily Kariuki (Health) and Joe Mucheru (ICT) as well as other government officials who attended the meeting at La Mada hotel in Nairobi denied any such plot was hatched, terming it a “routine development meeting.”

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They were all summoned to the DCI headquarters but insisted they can only record a statement once a formal complaint is filed by Ruto who has declined to discuss the issue in public only acknowledging on Sunday night during a K24 TV interview that he indeed reached out to Kenyatta, with whom they agreed never to discuss the matter in public.

Soon after Itumbi’s arrest, the DCI announced that an investigation had been opened on some 256 members of a Whatsapp group known as Tanga Tanga movement that is associated with the Deputy President.

“The court has not been told how many statements have been recorded from the 256 members of Tanga Tanga group who are spread across the Country” the court noted.

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