This archive report was first published on 4 September 2019.
On July 4, 2019, Dennis Itumbi was arraigned at the Milimani Law Court in Nairobi in connection with a fake letter claiming a plot to assassinate Deputy President William Ruto. Itumbi denied the charges.
During the ongoing criminal case against Itumbi, a witness named Samuel Gateri has filed an application to withdraw as a prosecution witness, citing threats of torture to force him to sign a statement. Gateri claimed in court papers that detectives coerced him to confess to having a telephone conversation with Ruto.
Gateri was arrested in Embu on July 2, days after an investigation was opened into the letter that had surfaced online alleging a May 14 meeting by three Cabinet Secretaries to plot the alleged assassination. The three CSs - Joe Mucheru (ICT), Peter Munya (Trade and East African Community), and Sicily Kariuki (Health) - denied knowledge of a plot against the DP and demanded that Ruto records a statement if indeed he was the complainant.
Authorities later branded the letter fake, prompting the arrest and subsequent prosecution of State House's Digital Media Director Dennis Itumbi. Gateri's application to withdraw as a witness was filed on September 2, 2019.
“I was under arrest and they told me that they would go ahead and execute me if I did not confirm I had a telephone conversation with his Excellency the Deputy President and Mr Dennis Itumbi was my link. They further threatened that they would take me to a high ranking security personnel in Government so that I could be dealt with,” Gateri claimed in his application before court.
Police have claimed the letter was first shared in a WhatsApp group called Tanga Tanga, whose name is similar to that of a lobby campaigning for Ruto's 2022 presidential bid. However, Gateri claims police coerced him to sign a statement he did not record and whose contents he does not know up to date.
On September 4, 2019, Milimani Chief Magistrate Martha Mutuku directed the prosecution to reply to Gateri's application by the end of the week in preparation for a hearing on September 30.
