My life is in danger, Dennis Itumbi now claims

By Brian Okoth and Shukri Wachu.

Former blogger-turned-Jubilee digital strategist, Dennis Itumbi, now claims his life is in danger.

Itumbi says detectives handling the case, in which he is accused of authoring and circulating a ‘fake’ DP Ruto-assassination plot letter, won’t relent until he admits he crafted the controversial dispatch.  

“I fear for my life because the DCI and the PS are very desperate to have my help in saying there is no plot for [Ruto’s] assassination, and or that it is based on an empty fake letter. I do not know and I am unable to help in that narrative for which I am being persecuted,” said Itumbi in his sworn affidavit dated July 4.

The digital strategist, said to be allied to DP Ruto, claims, in his affidavit, that he was asked by DCI detectives to claim responsibility for the letter if he really wants his freedom back following his arrest Wednesday.

“Upon my arrest, I was asked to: admit I authored an alleged letter emanating from ‘Cabinet Secretary’ showing that there may have been a plot to assassinate a member of my employer, the Deputy President of the Republic of Kenya [and] also admit that I posted the said letter,” claimed Itumbi.

“I refused to make any of the above admissions having elected to keep quiet as allowed by the Constitution,” he said.

“I am now accused in the Application of refusing to cooperate with the investigations; the point being that my actions amount to cooperation only if I make the admissions. I remain fearful for my life for as long as I don’t make the admission.”

According to Itumbi, claims that the DP’s life is in danger are not hot air – and that he has video evidence of what the four Cabinet Secretaries talked about when they met at La Mada Hotel in Nairobi on May 14.

“… I have an audio and video recording of material that could show that a meeting could have happened at a place called La Mada, at which discussions were held on the possibility of assassination of a member of my employer, particularly the Deputy President of the Republic of Kenya. I decline to disclose my sources on grounds of my journalist ethics,” said Itumbi.

Milimani Senior Resident Magistrate, Zainab Abdul, however, rejected Itumbi’s request to have the said-media material played in court, saying Itumbi’s plea came at the wrong stage in the case.

According to Zainab, Itumbi hasn’t even been charged, hence he could not be allowed to submit to the court what he termed as “evidence”.

“Owing to the said material that I have, and which they

[investigators]

disparately want to avoid, they now want me to be confined at Kamukunji Police Station where hard-core criminals are kept.

“I fear that my life is at real risk for as long as I am in the hands of the investigators,” said the controversial digital strategist.

Magistrate Abdul directed that Itumbi be detained at Muthaiga Police Station, and not Kamukunji police post, for five days as the Prosecution collects more evidence to firm up their case.

Itumbi was arrested on Wednesday, July 3, at Charlies Bistro restaurant in Nairobi CBD.

He spent Wednesday night at Muthaiga police post.