ODPP yet to charge teacher allegedly impersonating President William Ruto on X
Sifuna is out on a cash bail of Sh100,000 after the court declined to remand him for an additional seven days as sought by the DCI last week.
The 22-year-old man who allegedly impersonated President William Ruto on X account and promised to resign from office will wait longer for the state to decide what to do with him.
The prosecution told the court that the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has not completed investigations into the matter where Titus Wekesa Sifuna is accused of insulting the head of state.
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The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions sought an additional month to allow investigators time to continue with the probe, proposing a mention date in May.
But the suspect's lawyer, Kennedy Echesa, said his client is a teacher in Kwale and will be teaching, proposing to have the matter mentioned in August to have the DCI given three months' time.
He also gave an alternative of mentioning the case on June 26, during the half-term break, so that Sifuna is not inconvenienced, and the same was adopted by the court.
Sifuna is out on a cash bail of Sh100,000 after the court declined to remand him for an additional seven days as sought by the DCI last week.
The suspect was arrested for declaring he "Must Go" under the username "I must Go" while pretending to be the fifth President of Kenya.
Sifuna is under investigation for alleged publication of false information while impersonating Ruto and deceiving Kenyans that he would resign from the presidency.
Detective Constable Peter Mwangi of DCI headquarters says he is investigating an offence of publication of false information contrary to section 23 of the Computer Misuse and Cybercrime Act of 2018.
In an affidavit filed in court, Mwangi says the X handle has been posting messages and images to the public, attracting negative comments, which are dangerous to the peace of the nation.
"The contents in the X handle account are of great harm to the reputation of a country, being that the presidency is a symbol of national unity and ought to be respected and honoured by all," states Mwangi.
"The messages and images 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 the members of the public."
Part of the ongoing investigations, according to Detective Mwangi, include subjecting mobile phones, laptops and hard disks to forensic examination, getting certified posts from X handle providers on the accounts used by Sifuna, which are awaiting orders of the court.
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