Viral TikTok video lands Kilifi content creators in jail
The four content creators arrested on Wednesday, May 8, for filming a video of a staged robbery outside a police station have been charged with publishing false information.
The suspects, including a 17-year-old boy, were arrested after the video went viral on TikTok.
The court granted the four a bond of Sh200,000 each with a surety of the same amount.
Shabir Suleiman, Omar Juma, Caleb Kahindi and the minor, whose identity cannot be published for legal reasons, pleaded not guilty before Kilifi Chief Magistrate Ivy Wasike.
According to the charge sheet, on May 7, the suspects, together with others not in court, posted a video on a TikTok account with the caption “Wezi mbele ya station in Kilifi (robbers outside Kilifi police station), which they knew to be false”.
The case will be heard on July 30.
In the staged video, a man, who appeared to be drunk, came out of the Administration Police canteen in Kilifi and was robbed of his bag by two others on a waiting boda boda.
Kilifi North sub-county police commander Kenneth Maina said in an earlier interview that police arrested the culprits after identifying them through a CCTV camera at the canteen.
Further footage obtained by the Nation showed one of the alleged suspects approaching a cleaner in the canteen who, after a brief conversation, gave him a fist bump.
The youths were arrested at their homes in Kilifi. Mr Maina said they were pursuing another suspect who was still at large.