Detectives grill blogger Yassin Juma over social media posts on KDF attack in Somalia

Blogger and former NTV journalist Yassin Juma at the Muthaiga Police Station after his arrest. Detectives have questioned him over his posts on Twitter and Facebook on the Al-Shabaab attack on a KDF camp in El-Adde, Somalia which left an unknown number of soldiers dead. PHOTO | ANGIRA ZADOCK | NATION MEDIA GROUP

Detectives have Sunday grilled blogger and former NTV journalist Yassin Juma over what he has been posting on the social media about the terror attack on a KDF camp in El-Adde, Somalia which left an unknown number of soldiers dead.

Mr Juma, according to the police, was arrested following his regular updates on his Facebook and Twitter accounts.

The journalist was arrested at his Donholm residence in Nairobi on Saturday at around 8pm by eight officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters and was taken to the Muthaiga Police Station.

“I was from the hospital when I was arrested by eight police officers in two cars.

“They took me to my house where they conducted a search before they escorted me to the police station,” he told Nation at the police station.

RANSACKED HOUSE

The detectives ransacked his house and took flash disks and looked through the contents of his laptops.

Mr Juma, however, said that he had not been informed of the charges he was going to face.

An entry in the Occurrence Book, OB 52/23/01/2016, indicates that he was accused of “misuse of communication gadgets.”

A day after the attack, Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Nkaissery warned Kenyans against sending alarming pictures and information about it, adding that doing so served to further Al-Shabaab’s fear-mongering agenda.

Maj Gen (Rtd) Nkaissery singled out Mr Juma as being among those journalists “portraying Al-Shabaab in good light while showing security agencies in bad light” when claims of mass graves in Mandera emerged late 2015.

The Inspector-General of Police Joseph Boinett also warned that police would deal firmly with people who were “using media freedom to spread images that glorify terrorists.”

“As a matter of fact, we have persons of interest that will soon appear before court to answer to the offences.

“We also call upon the media to discharge their duties with responsibility and not become unwitting voices of terrorist groups,” he said.

Additional reporting by Aggrey Mutambo.