A 22-year-old Pwani University graduate from Bungoma County has been arraigned in court for allegedly impersonating President William Ruto on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
The suspect, Titus Wekesa Sifuna, is accused of using a parody account to falsely suggest that the president was stepping down.
Sifuna allegedly operated under the account name “I Must Go” with the handle @Thief_5th, which mimicked the profile of Kenya’s fifth president and shared posts declaring that Ruto “must go.”
Charges and Investigations
According to police constable Peter Mwangi of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters in Nairobi, the posts violated Section 23 of the Computer Misuse and Cybercrime Act of 2018.
Mwangi told the court that the account’s content attracted inflammatory and negative reactions online, posing a threat to national peace and cohesion.
“The X handle has been posting messages and images that have stirred public outrage, with comments that could jeopardize national stability,” Mwangi stated in a miscellaneous application.
Investigators claim that Sifuna’s posts contained false information intended to mislead the public into believing that President Ruto was planning to resign. They traced the account to a SIM card registered in Sifuna’s name, with details confirmed by the National Registration Bureau.
Police also allege that the parody account targeted President Ruto and his family with derogatory and disrespectful content, which they claim amounted to hate speech capable of inciting ethnic tensions.
Ongoing Investigations and Court Ruling
The DCI has launched a forensic investigation into Sifuna’s mobile devices, including his phones, laptop, and hard drives. Detectives also plan to retrieve certified account records from X and accompany Sifuna to his residence in Msambweni, Kwale County, where he allegedly posted the content while working as a volunteer teacher.
Sifuna appeared before Senior Principal Magistrate Geoffrey Onsarigo at the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi.
The court granted the DCI permission to detain him for three days at Capital Hill Police Station to allow for further investigations—down from the seven days initially requested. His lawyer, Kennedy Echesa, opposed the detention request, calling it excessive.
