Update 11:23 Activist Mutemi Kiama was on Thursday, April 8, released on a Ksh500,000 cash bail pending completion of investigations.
The activist was arrested following alleged cybercrime offences of producing 'public notice' posters using the President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto's images.
The activist was also ordered not to use his social media accounts and report to the investigative officer daily.
An activist behind a poster that went viral on social media pages was on Tuesday evening, April 6, arrested and taken to the Milimani law courts on Wednesday for arraignment.
Reports indicated that activist Edwin Kiama was arrested for cyber crime related offenses.
"The police are accusing him of making a public notice asking the world to stop lending money to Kenya," activist Boniface Mwangi stated.
Kiama, through his twitter account, @wanjirurevolt, shared posters asking the International Monetary Fund (IMF) not to loan money to Kenya. The posters had a photo of President Uhuru Kenyatta indicating that he should not transact on behalf of the Kenyan residents.
The posters were used by a number of netizens online with the hashtag #stoplendingKenya that has been trending since Sunday, April 4.
A section of Kenyans insisted that the borrowed funds would only benefit specific people who have direct access to the government.
Following the uproar, IMF in a statement explained that the loan would be given in phases within three years and reviews would also be conducted to ensure compliance.
One of the conditions Kenya has agreed to comply with include enforcing wealth declarations for all public servants to curb corruption. This despite previous efforts by the government yielding little fruit.
“We have noted the vulnerability of the financial sector to the risks posed by laundering of the proceeds of corruption, and we will, therefore, continue to use AML/CFT measures to support anti-corruption efforts.
“We will continue to support efforts of the Financial Reporting Centre (FRC) towards encouraging and strengthening the use of financial intelligence to trace proceeds of corruption by sharing relevant financial intelligence with law enforcement agencies," Kenya pledged.
