Itumbi forwarded Ruto assassination letter to Tangatanga WhatsApp group, witness tells court

By , K24 Digital
On Wed, 13 Nov, 2019 16:28 | < 1 min read
On March 18, Dennis Itumbi was sacked as State House’s senior director of communication, digital, innovation and diaspora communication. [PHOTO | FILE]
On March 18, Dennis Itumbi was sacked as State House’s senior director of communication, digital, innovation and diaspora communication. [PHOTO | FILE]
Keino told a Nairobi court on Wednesday that Itumbi posted the letter in May, but he is not sure if it was Itumbi who authored the letter. [PHOTO | FILE]

A witness in the case in which State House digital strategist Dennis Itumbi has been accused of authoring and circulating a fabricated letter alleging there was a plot to kill DP William Ruto has revealed that, indeed, Itumbi forwarded the said-letter to a WhatsApp group called Tangatanga.

Noah Keino, a clerk at the Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute (KIRDI), told the Milimani Court on Wednesday that Itumbi posted the said-letter in late May 2019, but he [Keino] is not sure whether it was Itumbi who authored the letter.

Keino said he had seen the letter posted in three other WhatsApp groups, and, therefore, he couldn’t say with certainty that Itumbi was the source of the alarming message.

Keino, who is an administrator of the Tangatanga WhatsApp group, said the network was created for Ruto supporters to exchange ideas on how they can boost his 2022 presidential bid.

Itumbi is accused alongside one-Samuel Gateri of authoring and circulating an alarming letter that alleged that there was a plan to assassinate DP Ruto in order to stop him from ascending to presidency in 2022.

The two were, on July 22, 2019, charged with publishing a letter dated May 30, 2019 with the aim of causing anxiety to the general public.

Itumbi and Gateri denied the charges before Milimani Chief Magistrate Martha Mutuku.