DP murder plot: Magistrate asks for screen to play Itumbi video

 

A Nairobi magistrate has directed the ICT department to provide equipment to play a video in a forgery case against former State House staffer Dennis Itumbi. 

Itumbi is charged with making a false document without authority and publishing a false statement alleging a plot to assassinate Deputy President William Ruto. 

Chief magistrate Martha Mutuku Wednesday postponed the case to March 22 after hearing a witness who was to testify was unwell.

State prosecutor Anderson Gikunda said they were not ready to proceed in the absence of the witness and sought another date.

“The witness is unwell and unable to come to court today, we wanted to call the investigating officer instead to testify but the defence wanted to first finish with that particular witness,” he told the court.

Itumbi’s lawyer did not oppose the application for adjournment but noted that they were eager and ready to proceed with the matter.

Magistrate Mutuku directed the matter to be heard on March 22 and 26 and directed the ICT system to be provided to the defence.

Itumbi had on January 20 asked the court to allow him to play video evidence allegedly recorded at La Mada Hotel in Nairobi and showing the plot to murder Ruto.

Through his lawyer Katwa Kigen, Itumbi also sought ICT equipment to show that a letter he is charged with forging did not generate from his device. 

“There has been this issue of whether the meeting actually took place and the video that the prosecution was availed with which they had said they would investigate. We would want to use the same facilitation to play the video to prove whether or not the meeting took place,” Kigen had said in court.

Kigen said Itumbi was merely forwarded what was in circulation despite the prosecution case that he authored the letter. Itumbi is charged alongside Samuel Gateri.

The prosecution says he wrote the letter dated May 30, 2019 purporting it to be a genuine document made by a Cabinet secretary, a fact he knew to be false.

The charge sheet says he published the letter with intent to cause anxiety to the general public on June 20 at an unknown place. 

He is also accused of re-programming a Samsung Note 9 while he was not the manufacturer. 

A forensic expert who had testified in the case claimed that the letter by Itumbi which was posted in a Tangatanga group was not forwarded.

Kigen said they intend to demonstrate the difference between a material that is forwarded from that which is self-authored. 

“We intend to avail the phone that was allegedly used to forward the message or author the message ...We want to demonstrate that indeed you can forward a message and not necessarily show that it has been forwarded,” Kigen told the court.  BY THE STAR