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Man charged for sending abusive text to Deputy President


A man has been charged in a Nairobi court for sending an abusive text message to the Deputy President William Ruto.

Dedan Marenya, who appeared before Senior Principal Magistrate Enock Cherono on Tuesday, pleaded not guilty to the charge of sending an abusive message to the Deputy President.

Marenya was said to have sent the message to Mr Ruto’s number on 15 December.

The vulgar text message ended with a statement on how the Deputy President will not be elected again to power come 2017.

Mr Ruto’s number was among the public official’s numbers that were posted on Twitter by blogger Robert Alai on December 14, 2014 telling Kenyans to call them and notify them of the Kainuk stand-off that left several passengers stranded for days.

Alai appeared before a Kiambu court after the incident and was charged with undermining the Presidency.

The Milimani Court that was hearing case on the of the abusive text message sent to the Deputy President was informed by the prosecution that investigations into the matter were still ongoing.

SOUND MIND

The prosecutor told the court that the charges on the charge sheet may be amended once investigations are completed.

He also informed the magistrate that Safaricom had given information indicating that Marenya sent about 30 other text messages and was still waiting for a cybercrime report in relation to the messages.

He added that the accused underwent medical examination at Mathare Mental Hospital and was found to be of a sound mind thus fit for trial.

The Magistrate directed that the accused be remanded till January 06, 2015 when the case will be mentioned and the bond application renewed after completion of investigations. The case is set for hearing on March 27, 2015.

In the same court, a Nairobi woman was charged with sending an abusive message to another woman on December 21.

Purity Wairimu pleaded not guilty to three counts of sending different messages to Dorcas Makena in an alleged love triangle.

The messages were framed to insult Ms Makena over a man she was dating. The accused was released on a bond of Sh 100,000 with a surety of same amount or cash bail of Sh 50,000. The case will be heard on July 14, 2015.