A Bungoma man accused of impersonating President William Ruto on X has been released on a Ksh1 million bond or an alternative cash bail of Ksh100,000.
This is after Milimani Court Senior Principal Magistrate Geoffrey Onsarigo declined an application by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to continue detaining Titus Wekesa Sifuna for five more days.
“The court has rejected the prosecution’s request to continue holding the suspect, and the respondent is hereby granted a bond of Ksh1 million plus one surety or alternative cash bail of Ksh100,000 plus one surety,” Senior Principal Magistrate Onsarigo ruled on Friday, April 25, 2025.
The DPP sought to detain the suspect for five more days, citing that the Investigative Officer (IO), Peter Mwangi, is yet to complete the investigations.
They informed the court that IO Mwangi has so far managed to serve orders to X handle providers and the Communications Authority of Kenya to provide them with information on posts made in the said X account.
However, the prosecution stated that they have only been served with a few posts and are expecting the authority to avail all the information requested so as to be able to make a decision on the charges against Wekesa.
“Your honour, so far they have only been able to avail a few posts that were on the X handle, and we are yet to receive the entire information that had been requested,” the DPP prosecutors told the court.
Wekesa, who was arrested in Bungoma County, is said to have been posting content on the X handle, calling himself the fifth president of Kenya under the username ‘I Must Go’.
According to a miscellaneous application filed by Investigating Officer Mwangi, Sifuna has been posting messages and images on the said X handle that have been attracting negative comments, which are dangerous to the peace of the nation.
Further, he states that the content is of great harm to the reputation of the country, in the sense that the presidency is a symbol of national unity and ought to be respected and honoured by all.
Hate speech
IO Mwangi also states that the content on the X account portrays hate speech and might lead to ethnic violence.
“The images and messages attached to the account, which have been discovered so far during the preliminary investigations, are more of hate speech, which can lead to ethnic tensions among other members of the public.”
Additionally, Officer Mwangi states that the identity card (ID) used to register the SIM card operating the X account, purporting that President Ruto is about to resign under pressure imposed by Kenyans to have him leave office, belongs to Sifuna.
While seeking to detain Sifuna, IO Mwangi told the court that they would need to visit Msambweni in Kwale County, where he has been living for the better part of the year while posting the content on X, to enable them to gather more evidence.
He stated that Sifuna is a flight risk since he confided to him that he was living in Kwale, working as a volunteer teacher in the area where the content on the X handle has been posted from, though he was arrested in Bungoma County.
The matter will be mentioned Wednesday, April 30, 2025, for further directions.