Nothing instills fear than a thinking that Fred Matiangi and his allies are hot on your trail baying for your blood for wronging them. This is exactly what befell two Eldoret political bloggers in Kenya.
There has been reports that the police have arrested two political bloggers in Kenya for accusations of publishing stories about Fred Matiangi’s health. This follows trending reports in social media and various blogging websites that Fred Matiangi was hospitalized after contracting the deadly coronavirus.
Emmanuel Kimtai Kosgei alias Kemxy and his brother Isaac Kibet Yego were arrested today by the Ngeria area branch of the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) in Uasin Gishu County. The police have intimated that the two suspects have been interrogated in Eldoret town police station and are expected to be arraigned in court early next week.
During the arrest, the police recovered mobile phones and laptops which is believed to have been used to publish the offending content on Facebook.
Since Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee government came into power, many poltical bloggers in Kenya have been arrested. The most famous one is the notorious blogger by the name Cyprian Nyakundi who has been in court severally due to his inflammatory blogs targeting political elites in the country. Mr. Nyakundi was arrested in March for also publishing false information about the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. This was after the first confirmed case was officially reported in March 15, 2020.
Dr. Matiangi held a press conference on Friday to refute the rumors that he had contracted the deadly coronavirus and hence been admitted to Aga Khan Hospital‘s Intensive Care Unit (ICU). During the conference, he stated that he had taken the covid-19 test thrice and all have come back negative.
The super Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Interior and the Coordination of National Security also said that his “mentally deranged” enemies were pent on distracting him from undertaking important projects by publishing misleading information about his health. “Being public officials, this is the price my wife and children have to pay. The information is totally false and misleading. It has traumatized the entire family” Mr. Matiangi retorted.
Apart from Dr. Matiangi, there has been reports of other senior government officials contracting the deadly covid-19 disease. On Friday, there were confirmed reports that government spokesman Cyrus Oguna had tested positive for covid-19. Unlike Dr. Matiangi, Mr. Oguna did indeed confirm that he had contracted the illness on a previous government assignment.
In Kenya, coronavirus has infected more than 17,000 people so far or which at least 270 have died. More than 8,000 of the covid-19 patients have made a full recovery and hence have been discharged from hospitals across the country. One thing Kenyans are unaware of is that covid-19 treatment is no longer free in the country. This follows a trending video on social media in which recovered covid-19 patients have been hit with Ksh.74,000 hospital bill. In the video, the patients admit that they were initially told that treatment was free and now are surprised as the government has reneged on helping them settle down the exorbitant healthcare bill. Below, I have attached the actual video:
The arrested political bloggers in Kenya will be accused of contravening cyber-crimes legislation in the country. According to the Kenyan Constitution, anyone using digital platforms to publish inflammatory content is liable of breaking the law. Cyber security in Kenya is governed by Article 31 of the Constitution of Kenya 2010, The Kenyan Information and Communication Act No.2 of 1998, the Computer Misuse and Cyber Crimes Act No. 5 of 2018 and the Data Protection Act No.24 2019. It is expected that Dr. Fred Matiangi will use any or all of these legislation to get his revenge on these Kenyan political bloggers.
It is worth noting that the Computer Misuse and Cyber Crimes Act gives no concrete description of what constitutes cyber security
Not only will Matiangi try to bulldoze his own way because of being slighted by these guys, he may try to teach a reason to any other individual or group of individuals who are thinking about going after himself or any other high ranking official in the ruling Jubilee government.
