BY TKARIUKI.
President Kenyatta’s Director of Digital Communication Denis Itumbi is demanding Sh50 Million from the government over a raid at his house.
The raid was in relation to alleged interference with ICC cases.
In January 2012, then ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo reported that he was investigating interference with witnesses in the case against President Uhuru Kenyatta, DP William Ruto and Radio journalist Joshua Arap Sang.
Mr Ocampo had claimed that his e-mail account was hacked and key witnesses against President Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto threatened.
The prosecutor then alleged that that the court’s e-mail accounts were also hacked.
It is during the unravelling of this episode that police raided his residence in Kiambu, confiscated his laptop, mobile phone, arrested and detained him.
According to Itumbi, after investigations by the ICC, the court did not find him culpable in any way and never issued a warrant of arrest against him.
Itumbi says that despite ICC clearing him, the DPP is still pursuing the case. As an upshot, he now wants the court to bar the State from carrying out any probe against him in relation to the ICC and award him costs
In a letter filed with the Attorney General Prof Githu Muigai, Itumbi wants the office to admit liability and pay up saying his constitutional rights to privacy were grossly violated in the raid and subsequent detention.
He added that the refusal to close the file was causing him anxiety and uncertainty, given that the ICC pre-trial brief released on January 19, 2015 had not implicated him in any way.
Itumbi also submitted that his arrest and four-day detention violated his right to protection, freedom and privacy, and denied him the right to a fair hearing and release on bail.
“I was directed to make weekly appearances at the CID headquarters and later summoned by the Parliamentary Committee on Defence,” he said.
He says that he is still under close watch by the investigators even after President Kenyatta’s case was terminated.
Before his appointment to the Presidential Digital team, Itumbi was a blogger.
A ruling will be delivered on February 7 next year by Justice Joseph Onguto.
