The court on Monday granted the police the authority to hold a suspect connected to an impersonation case for three days as they concluded their investigations.
The suspect, Michael Mito Atito, stood accused of impersonating Deputy President William Ruto’s wife, Rachel.
“It has been proven on oath that for the purpose of an investigation into the commission of an offense, it is necessary for you to be remanded at Central Police Station for three days,” Magistrate Muthoni Nzibe ruled.
It is claimed that Atito opened a social media account using Rachel Ruto’s credentials including photographs, and purportedly claimed to be looking out for the less fortunate by giving them free lorries.
He was therefore potentially facing impersonation charges, a clear breach of Section 15 of the Penal code.
The Chief Inspector, George Chai, revealed that Atito and his collaborators used the Facebook account to implore the trusting members of the public for money to register the vehicles in their names.
The police cited the need to record witness statements as the part of the reason they needed to be allowed to hold him for a few more days.
Atito was arrested in Kisumu following investigations into the fraudulent social media account.
Chai further disclosed to the court that they would be subjecting the suspect to an identification parade to ascertain whether the person described by the two witnesses was the one in custody.
Atito is scheduled to be arraigned in court on 11th February 2019.
