Controversial Kenyan blogger Robert Alai was Monday freed on Sh50,000 bail after facing misinformation charges, when he appeared before an open court session at Milimani Law courts.
Alai, who appeared before Senior Resident Magistrate Musembi Ndungi was further barred from publishing coronavirus-related information on his social media pages.
He was charged with publishing false coronavirus information where he alleged that government was concealing coronavirus-related information at the port of Mombasa, with the prosecution saying the information was meant to cause fear and panic.
According to prosecution, this information was meant to cause fear and panic. Alai however denied the charges.
The controversial blogger spent the weekend at Muthaiga Police Station following his arrest on Friday, March 20.
Alai’s arrest came at a time of heightened vigilance on violation of newly adopted cybersecurity laws.
As reported by The Sauce recently, Kenyan authorities have enhanced the monitoring of social media and other digital platforms to check the spread of misinformation about coronavirus.
Kenya’s Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes law criminalizes the sharing of false, misleading or fictitious information and stipulates a fine of 5m Kenyan shillings ($50,000) or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or both.
The number of people so far infected are over 300,000 with over 15,000 fatalities and close to 100,000 recoveries.
