Jackson Kuria Kihara alias Cop Shakur, a prison officer, who was suspended for joining Kenyans in the anti-Finance Bill protests also known as Gen Z demos in June 2024, has been released on a bond of Ksh100,000 or cash bail of Ksh50,000.
Kihara is accused of publishing false information contrary to section 23 of Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act No.5 of 2018 CAP 79c.
Appearing before Senior Principal Magistrate Gilbert Shikwe at the Milimani High Court on Monday, 20 January 2025, Kihara has denied the charges.
According to the charge sheet, on January 11, 2025, Kiharu with others not before the court are accused of publishing false information while using his X account dubbed @CopShakur.
“On January 11, 2025, at about 1718Hrs, at unknown place within the republic of Kenya, jointly with others not before the court, knowingly and unlawfully published false information while using the X Corp account dubbed shakur the cop @CopShakur posted false information,” the charge read.
Kihara in his tweet, without mentioning names accused one of the cabinet secretaries of involvement in the abductions that were on the rise in the country, a tweet said to be false and well calculated to cause panic among Kenyans.
“Under which law? This CS is an upcoming dictator. He is the one responsible for the abductions together with Ruto,” his tweet read.
Kihara was arrested on January 15, 2025, at Kamiti Maximum staff quarters by officers from the Serious Crimes Unit (SCU) of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DC) and presented at Milimani Law Courts Chief before Magistrate Lucas Onyina on Thursday, January 16, 2025.
In his ruling, Onyina directed that Kihara be detained for three days at the Muthainga police station until January 20, 2025, contrary to the prosecution’s request to detain him for 21 days to complete investigations.
Onyina argued that Kihara was still a serving officer of the disciplined forces and that the investigations can still go on without his involvement.
Kihara who joined the disciplined forces in 2019 rose to lime light after he openly became a Kenya Kwanza government critic despite being in the disciplined forces.
