Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officers in Migori County have confirmed that The Standard Group journalist Collins Kweyu, who was arrested last week in relation to cases related to cybercrime, will now be turned into a state witness.
This is after Kweyu presented himself at the DCI offices in Migori to record a statement. Kweyu was summoned following his dramatic arrest at a Nairobi Hotel last month.
According to the senior DCI officers, Kweyu had cooperated well with the investigative agencies, with preliminary findings indicating that he was not the main person of interest in the allegations.
Kweyu was arrested over claims of soliciting or offering a bribe in a news story concerning a judge. The judge is accused of soliciting a bribe to make a favoured ruling.
However, he dismissed the allegations, insisting that all he wanted was to get a clarification from the judge on the nature of the bribery allegations.
It was at this point that he got himself in a strange mix-up where he suddenly turned out to be the suspect in the graft allegations.
''I did not in any way solicit or demand a bribe to influence the outcomes of my story. By act, we are guided by the journalistic principle of a right to a fair reply, and that is all that I was trying to do before I got myself on the accusatory end,'' Kweyu told journalists in Migori.
Kweyu was arrested on Friday last week after it was reported that he was lured to a city hotel in Nairobi for a ‘meeting’, only to be met by officers who quickly took him away.
The journalist was later taken to Central Police Station, where he was allegedly detained.
Following demands from journalists' unions such as the Crime Journalists Association of Kenya (CJAK), the journalist was released on a free bond.
CJAK condemned the arrest, pointing to the use of state machinery to silence the media. They further characterised it as “not only an attack on press freedom but an attack on the rule of law itself.”
Additionally, CJAK raised concern over court orders issued to search Kweyu’s house and equipment, which they believe could be a means to uncover his sources, and they questioned the manner and timing of his arrest.
