President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Director of Digital Media and Diaspora Affairs Dennis Itumbi has sued the Government over his arrest and detention without trial over alleged hacking of International Criminal Court’s ( ICC) prosecution office email in 2012.
Mr Itumbi, in his case against the Attorney General Githu Muigai, Director of Public Prosecution Keriako Tobiko and Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinett is seeking damages for the violation of his constitutional rights. He also wants the court to protect him from any further arrest and prosecution in relation to the issues, claiming he is still under close watch by the investigators even after President Kenyatta’s case was terminated.
In his suit papers filed before the Constitutional and Human Rights Division of the High Court, he claims his arrest was influenced by his close relations to the President, who was then facing charges on crimes against humanity at the ICC.
“The ICC did not issue an arrest warrant against or summon your petitioner. There has never been a request to the Government of Kenya through the respondents or any other public office to investigate, summon or arrest the petitioner,” he said.
Itumbi, formerly a blogger, says he was arrested in Embu and detained in different police stations for close to four days. He claimed police did not tell him why he was arrested. “I was traumatised for four days. It was either at the instigation of the OTP or any organ of the court,” he said.
Former ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo had claimed that his e-mail account was hacked and key witnesses against President Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto were being threatened. The prosecutor then alleged that that the court’s e-mail accounts had been hacked.
But Itumbi argued that none of the allegations were found to be true.
He said despite ICC clearing him, the DPP opted not to drop the probe. He now wants the court to bar the State from carrying out any probe against him in relation to theICC and also award him costs.
