Written by Were Kelly
The hearing of a case involving political activist Nuru Maloba Okanga, accused of publishing false, defamatory, and threatening information on social media, continued before a Nairobi court on Thursday.
Arresting officer Milton Mwanzi testified that he was deployed to Tasia, Embakasi, to apprehend Okanga after a video circulating on various platforms, including TikTok, was flagged.
Mwanzi told the court that he only managed to watch part of the clip before the arrest, explaining he had little time as he had been instructed to join the arresting team.
He also stated that he had not seen the charge sheet since his role was limited to handing Okanga over to the investigation team.
In the video, Okanga allegedly urged the then–Deputy President to “use his experience as a former District Commissioner to shoot the President because he was disturbing him, just as he used to disturb the President when he was Deputy President.”
During cross-examination led by lawyer Babu Owino, Mwanzi admitted he could not confirm the authenticity of the video, when it was uploaded, or who posted it.
He further revealed that despite being an investigator, he had no training in forensic cybercrime analysis and could not verify whether the clip was genuine or manipulated.
Mwanzi also told the court he did not have a court order to track Okanga’s movements, did not seize his devices, and did not apply for a search warrant.
He confirmed that the arrest was conducted purely based on instructions from his superior and without evidence obtained from TikTok at the time.
The matter is set to continue on October 2nd.
