Abel Kimutai Bitok, a former police chief, has taken legal action against two social media users who accused him of leading a government abduction unit.
Bitok has formally requested the Director of Criminal Investigations, Mohamed Amin, to look into the matter, after his personal details and photographs were leaked online.
The controversy began following claims by former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua on December 27, 2024.
Gachagua suggested that a group of police officers, operating independently of the Inspector General of Police, were responsible for abductions and killings, and he named Bitok as the leader of this unit.
Bitok, who resigned from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in 2022, has strongly denied these allegations.
In a letter from his legal team, Ham. K. Lagat Advocates, Bitok has filed a formal complaint against two social media users, Daniel Onyango (@oduk) and @DanChepta, accusing them of defamation and cyber harassment.
His lawyers argue that the social media posts violate the Cyber Misuse and Cybercrimes Act, Section 27, as they are “false and malicious.”
The posts, which included a LinkedIn profile identifying Bitok as a fraud investigator at the DCI, falsely linked him to the recent wave of abductions.
According to the lawyer, Bitok resigned from the DCI on September 26, 2022, a fact substantiated by official records attached to the complaint.
The demand letter calls on Onyango and Chepta to retract their defamatory statements and issue an apology to Bitok on the same platform, X, where the posts were originally shared.
The letter warns that legal proceedings will be initiated if they fail to comply within five days.
This legal action comes amidst rising public anger over abductions of young people by suspected state security agents, an issue that has sparked protests and widespread condemnation across Kenya.
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) has reported that 29 people have gone missing since June 2024, further intensifying calls for reform and the cessation of these abductions.
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