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A court has been offered video and audio recordings purportedly exposing discussions on a plot to assassinate Deputy President William Ruto.
Dennis Itumbi, the secretary of digital media at State House, but who lately works from the DP’s office, yesterday sensationally told a Nairobi court he was in possession of the recordings of the alleged meeting at La Mada Hotel off Thika Road in Nairobi.
“I have an audio and a video recording of material that could show, subject to the investigations, that a meeting could have happened at a place called La Mada, at which discussions were held on possibility of assassination of a member of my employer, particularly the Deputy President of the Republic of Kenya. I request to play the audio-video content in court, in camera,” said Itumbi.
Replying affidavit
He made the statement in his replying affidavit to an application by the police to detain him further as investigations continued into a letter detectives termed as fake, which sparked off claims of a plot to kill Ruto.
Itumbi, who was arrested on Wednesday, and who will remain in custody for five more days, told the court the police had pressured him to admit he had authored and posted online the letter purporting to be from a Cabinet secretary exposing the conspiracy against the DP.
Three Cabinet secretaries - Joe Mucheru (ICT), Peter Munya (Trade and East African Community) and Sicily Kariuki (Health) - who were named in the letter as having attended the meetings at La Mada, were summoned to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters.
They denied claims of a plot to assassinate Ruto and declined to record statements until the complainant – whom they quoted the police as informing them was the DP – had made a substantive statement.
Yesterday, Itumbi claimed that he feared for his life after his alleged forced confession.
Milimani Senior Resident Magistrate Zainab Abdul allowed DCI officers to hold Itumbi for five days to allow them conclude investigations into the source of the letter.
In court, Itumbi’s lawyers Moses Chelang’a and Katwa Kigen argued that the arrest was politically instigated.
“They have already concluded that the letter was fake. Why then do they want to investigate something which they know is fake?” Mr Chelang’a argued.
Mr Katwa informed the court that his client was being forced to admit that he posted the letter.
The court heard Itumbi declined to cooperate with investigators.
