Nairobi court detains man suspected of impersonating ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo
A Nairobi court has detained a man suspected of opening a Facebook page in the name and image of Eliud Owalo, the Information, Communication, and Digital Economy Cabinet Secretary.
Milimani law courts senior principal magistrate Bernard Ochoi directed Calvince Otieno Odhiambo be detained at the Kilimani Police Station until January 12, 2023, to enable the Owalo and other witnesses to record a statement.
Upon his arrest on January 5, 2023 at Rongo, Migori County, Odhiambo was reportedly in the possession of six mobile phones, plus several Safaricom and Airtel sim cards.
When he was arrested, court heard the suspect was using a mobile phone number 0734338090, registered using a national identity card 5884319 of one Anjilina Achola Odede, who was born in 1939.
“Police are tracing Anjilina to establish under what circumstances her details were used by the Odhiambo to register the said airtel line,” Sgt Musungu told the court.
Mr Ochoi heard the Facebook account was active between December 6, 2022 and January 5, 2023 when the suspect was arrested.
“The fake facebook account was first seen by Dr Barrack Okwaro Muruka, the advisor, ministry of information, communication and digital economy who shared the same with the CS. Owalo confirmed he had seen it,” the investigating officer Sergent Rinos Musungu told Ms Kagendo while urging the detention plea.
Sgt Musungu said he arrested the suspect from Rongo in Migori then transferred him to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) , Nairobi where the phones and sim cards will be subjected to forensic examinations.
The magistrate heard from one of the phones recovered from the suspect he had posted a messenge :“Hi friends, we can discuss employment, business, development opportunities, women, men and youth empowerment in this podium to help each other in building a better society and a better country in these hard economic times, because l believe if we hold each-others hands we shall conquer demon called poverty in Jesus name.”
Sgt Musungu pleaded with Ochoi to allow his plea to detain the suspect for four days to enable investigators and experts to examine the documents.
The accused did not oppose the request by police to be detained but said the four days sought were too many given that he was arrested on January 5, 2023 and has been in custody and was cooperative.
Mr Ochoi allowed police to keep him for three days.
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