By Andrew Kariuki
David Mokaya can now breathe a sigh of relief after the Milimani Magistrates court acquitted him of all charges.
He had been charged with publishing false information of allegedly sharing an image of a funeral Procession and caption President William Ruto’s Body Leaving Lee Funeral home.
In her judgment, Magistrate Caroline Nyaguthi held that the evidence presented by the State was insufficient to sustain a conviction, particularly noting serious procedural flaws in the manner in which key digital evidence was obtained.
The court found that the accused person’s electronic devices were examined without a valid court order, contrary to legal requirements governing the handling of digital evidence.
Although investigators claimed that they had secured orders authorising the search and extraction of data from the gadgets, those orders were never produced before the court.
As a result, the magistrate ruled that the examination of the devices was conducted unlawfully after they had already been seized, rendering the evidence obtained from them unreliable.
The court further emphasised that offences involving cybercrime demand strict compliance with the law, given the sensitive nature of electronic evidence, which can easily be manipulated or interfered with if proper safeguards are not followed.
During the trial, the prosecution called six witnesses in an attempt to link Mokaya to the alleged offence.
However, the court found that the State failed to establish that the accused was the person who authored or posted the impugned content.
According to the prosecution, Mokaya was accused of using his X (formerly Twitter) account under the handle “Landlord @bozgabi” to publish the image on November 13, 2024.
However, the evidence presented did not conclusively connect him to the account or the publication in question.
In the absence of credible and legally obtained evidence linking the accused to the alleged offence, the court held that the prosecution had failed to discharge its burden of proof.
Consequently, the charges against Mokaya were dismissed and he was set at liberty.
