• DCI inspector testifies it was impossible to identify the author of a 'fake' letter on a Tantatanga WhatsApp group about a planned assassination of DP William Ruto.
• He confirms that State House digital director Dennis Itumbi posted the alarming report in a WhatsApp group.
Image: ENOS TECHE
A DCI inspector on Monday told a Nairobi Court it was impossible to identify the author of a ‘fake’ letter that raised an alarm a supposed planned assassination of Deputy President William Ruto.
Inspector George Aringo from the DCI cyber-crime forensic unit said it was not possible to 'see' the person who signed the publication because it had been blacked out.
He confirmed, however, that State House digital director Dennis Itumbi posted the alarming publication in a WhatsApp group.
Aringo, who holds a bachelor’s degree in IT from JKUAT and a certificate in digital forensics from a university in India, told the court that on July 6, 2019, an officer by the name of Corporal Yvonne Onyango brought two exhibits to their offices.
The exhibits were a Samsung Galaxy note and Oppo phones were brought with a request to recover an alarming image and determine the originator of the alarming post and any other relevant information.
Aringo testified that he was able to extract a screenshot of the alarming publication from the Oppo phone which has since been tabled in court as an exhibit.
“The publication was posted in Tanga Tanga movement WhatsApp group on 20 June 2019 at 12:17 am. It came from a contact saved as 'Itumbi President digital Dennis. I was able to establish that the posting was not a forwarded from any another group." he said.
From a summary of the findings, Aringo said the owner of the Oppo phone is a member of the Tangatanga movement WhatsApp group but from the Samsung handset, he was unable to extract details prior to July 1.
The matter was adjourned to March 17 when the witness will be cross-examined by Itumbi’s lawyer Katwa Kigen.
In July last year, Itumbi was charged with authoring a letter that purportedly raised an alarm over the planned assassination of Deputy President William Ruto.
The charge sheet read that on June 20, 2019, at an unknown place within the Republic of Kenya, Dennis Njue Itumbi made a document dated May 30, 2019, purporting to be a genuine one made by a Cabinet secretary, a fact he knew to be false.
In the second count, Itumbi was charged with programming a mobile phone, contrary to the section 84G of the Kenya Information and Communications Act.
He is out on a cash bail of Sh100,000.
(Edited by V. Graham)