Controversial blogger Robert Alai yesterday asked the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keriako Tobiko, to prosecute two men for “plotting to kill” him. Alai said TNA strategist Moses Kuria and Ugandan David Matsanga want him dead over comments he posted on Twitter.
On Friday, the blogger told the police he received an audio recording of the two conversing. He said he received the sound clip in his email a week after a friend warned him about his planned killing.
“A friend called me and warned me to be careful because some people met at a five star hotel and were overheard discussing what they intend to do to me because I was embarrassing them. I listened to the audio recording with my lawyer and decided report the matter to the police,” Alai said in his two-page police statement.
The blogger recorded the statement last Friday at the Central police station in Nairobi. In the clip, some men are heard saying “it has a come to a point” where Alai should be silenced even if that entails killing him.
“I have had 20-something years of public commenting and that kind of thing. If you come for me personally, you have no life. Attack my everything, my views but if you attack me personally, you have no life. But maybe I am bluffing but look for Robert Alai in a month,” one man says.
Another man referred to as “Mheshimiwa” tries to calm the other down. “But why are you giving him so much power?” Mheshimiwa says. Another man: “You kill him so that he doesn’t do it again.”
“No, no, no! You should not do that. What you should do is ignore him,” Mheshimiwa says. One of the other men suggests that Alai should be called and given two guns and asked which one he wants to be killed with.
According to the narrative of the audio posted online, one of the men was agitated by a tweet Alai posted that was read on a live Interview by KTN host Jeff Koinange.
The complainants in the audio also claimed that Alai’s writing was affecting their social and professional lives as they are read by everyone including their wives and children.
“You children are reading. Your wife is reading. It is a crisis everywhere,” one man says. “The British government should also seek to charge Matsanga with the crimes he has confessed of committing in Britain,” Alai told the Star yesterday.
Known for his hard-hitting views on various issues, Alai has a huge following on Twitter and Facebook. He has previously got into legal trouble with Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Kimemia, politician William Oduol and Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua.
– the-star.co.ke
