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Blogger Cyprian Nyakundi arrested outside court


Blogger Cyprian Nyakundi has been arrested at Milimani Law Courts, Nairobi, moments after mention of a defamation case he is facing.

The activist was arrested by plainclothes police and taken to Nairobi area DCI headquarters for questioning.

Mr Nyakundi was arrested by Directorate of Criminal Investigation officers who had been trailing him for weeks within and outside Nairobi.

The detectives had been moving around the busy courts for the last two weeks looking for the online activists known for his controversial posts.

They eventually arrested him shortly after leaving the courtroom.

BUNDLED INTO NIGHT

The civilian-dressed officers bundled Mr Nyakundi into a police vehicle and drove him to Nairobi area DCI offices for interrogation.

The blogger also confirmed his trailing by the detectives when he posted a captioned photo of a plainclothes police officer on his Twitter account.

“This man is trailing me. He says he is a @DCI_Kenya officer that wants to arrest me for an online post. I had appeared at Milimani Law Courts for a matter. He is the same guy that disappeared with my iPhone last time,” he tweeted.

A source told the Nation that Mr Nyakundi was arrested in connection with an online post in which he alleged two senior Jubilee administration officers were involved in bribery.

“We were instructed to arrest him. We brought him for interrogation on a post he made alleging that one of most senior-ranked officials was bribed by Chinese government to approve a tender,” said the source.

The blogger is facing several charges in various courts in Nairobi and Kiambu counties.

DEROGATORY  REMARKS

He was last charged before a Kiambu court with posting online derogatory remarks against Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru, Nairobi’s Mike Sonko and Kenya Power Managing Director Ken Tarus.

Mr Nyakundi was also charged with posting hate speech against the Kikuyu community on social media.

He denied the accusations and was freed on Sh2.2 million bond, with an alternative of a Sh1.1 million cash bail, for all the three charges.

He is also facing a charge of publishing defamatory information against Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore.

He and five others were also sued by business tycoon Vimal Shah and Bidco Africa Limited over series of alleged defamatory tweets.