Kitui based digital journalist Emmanuel Maleve of Hopekin Media has exclusively narrated to Channel 15 News Scoop his 24-hour ordeal in the hands of Nairobi Cyber Crime detectives.
In an exclusive interview, Maleve says what started as an ordinary afternoon quickly turned into a chilling ordeal involving arrest, threats, and psychological intimidation , allegedly orchestrated by DCI officers acting on political instructions.
On Labour Day, May 1st, Maleve had just finished watching President William Ruto’s address when he stepped out for routine errands at Muli Mall, unaware that he was walking into a carefully planned ambush.
“I entered Muli Mall through the west entrance and climbed the stairs like I always do. I had no idea DCI officers had been camping there for hours,” Maleve recounted. “Their mission was clear — to arrest me on orders from high above. I later learned I had been betrayed by a well-known, bleached informant closely linked to a notorious Kitui MP.”
He says the informant, fearing he might recognize her, pleaded with officers to let her point him out from a distance, a plan that worked.
Moments later, inside a bookshop where he was inquiring about revision materials for a relative, three plainclothes officers approached. “One called my name with a sneer, and another said, ‘Sisi ni officers. Cooperate twende pale station,’ before snapping handcuffs on my wrists.” He said
Remaining calm, he called a friend nearby and asked him to follow. As he was escorted out through the northern gate opposite Quickmart, he was led to a waiting vehicle — registration number KCQ 184U — and sandwiched between two armed sleuths. Their destination: the Kitui Police Station.
“At the station, I realized these weren’t local officers. They introduced themselves as DCI agents from headquarters along Kiambu Road. They logged my arrest under ‘cyberbullying’ and casually informed me I’d be taken to Nairobi.”
By this point, word had spread. Friends and colleagues began gathering at the station demanding answers, but the officers remained tight-lipped. One discreetly slipped a contact to Maleve’s associates. The journalist firmly believes the arrest was politically driven, triggered by his investigative reports exposing alleged NG-CDF fund misuse by Kitui South MP Dr. Rachael Kaki Nyamai.
At around 3 PM, the officers bundled him into the vehicle once again. “They put me back between them — their guns pressing against me. At one point, they even threatened to castrate me if I didn’t cooperate,” he said. “That’s when it hit me. This wasn’t law enforcement. This was a campaign of fear.”
After a long, silent journey, Maleve spent the night in a cold cell at Muthaiga Police Station. No formal charges were presented in court the next day. Instead, he was released on a Ksh 50,000 cash bail, with the prosecution failing to table a proper charge sheet.
His lawyer, Noel Muasya, condemned the arrest as illegal and politically motivated.
“I now know, without a shadow of a doubt — this was not an arrest. It was an abduction meant to scare me into silence. But I will not be broken,” Maleve declared.
