A Kitui-based blogger who was abducted by police officers has been released on a cash bail of Sh50,000 after spending a night at a Nairobi police station.
Emmanuel Maleve was dramatically arrested by officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) outside a shopping mall in Kitui town on Thursday evening.
He was taken to the Milimani Law Courts, but the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) declined to approve his charges. Police instead instructed him to deposit a cash bail of Sh50,000 and report to Muthaiga Police Station on May 8 to check the case's progress.
Maleve was arrested over allegations of defaming Kitui South MP Rachel Kaki and transported to the city.
Speaking alongside his lawyers in Nairobi, he accused the MP of orchestrating his arrest.
"I was arrested on Labour Day as I headed to the building where I do my business. I was told I was defaming the MP. I was told the case was for Nairobi and involved cybercrime misuse, so they had to take me to Nairobi," said the blogger.
His lawyer, Noel Musya, said that police told him that if investigations reveal a case, Malevi will be charged in court. Another lawyer, Evans Ondieki, condemned the arrest, saying that Maleve's rights were violated when police confiscated and switched off his mobile phone.
The MP said she reported the matter of her defamation by the said blogger at the Kitui DCI offices verbally in November last year and followed it up in writing to the DCI Headquarters in Nairobi on February 5, 2025.
The matter has since been under investigation, leading to the blogger's arrest.
The legislator said she did not want to comment further on the matter as it was still actively under investigation.
But Maleve defended his writing on corruption in Kitui South, stating that they were based on the report of the Auditor General.
