NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 24- Questions are now emerging over who wanted Deputy President William Ruto’s digital strategist Dennis Itumbi hurt, after Wednesday’s abduction and subsequent torture for 6 hours.
When he was found, Itumbi was naked, with both of his legs fractured, including his left hand.
Itumbi has other multiple injuries on his body, police, his friends and witnesses told Shahidi News.
Who did this? It remains the big question, months after he claimed to, had been shot at while driving in Garden estate, not so far from where he was abducted on Wednesday.
After being tortured and a frantic search by his friends including top politicians allied to the Deputy President, Itumbi was found in Lucky Summer in Kasarani by a taxi driver.
“My brother has been badly beaten. We thank God that he is alive. On his own account, he was arrested by police and beaten and tortured. This is the state we found him in,” his brother David Itumbi said.
At the point when he was found, he was naked and had a bleeding eye. His phone was also missing- one of his powerful tools of work, he uses to expose what he terms as highly confidential information against government officials and senior politicians on his Twitter and Facebook handles.
Amidst a public outcry and a hand of accusation, police say they were not involved.
Human rights activist Boniface Mwangi was among Kenyans on social media who condemned the incident.
After he was abducted from a barbershop in Thindigua, the four men drove around with him in different parts of the city. At some point, they would change to different vehicles.
Itumbi was taken to Uhai Neema hospital in the Kasarani area for attention and was later moved to Nairobi West hospital for further medication.
“He is badly injured but he is alive,” his brother David said.
Witnesses said the four men, all clad in balaclava approached Itumbi and forced him to the back seat of a silver Toyota Allion before they drove away towards the city centre.
“They were all built. They overpowered him,” a witness told Shahidi News. “It was too fast for members of the public to do anything. They looked armed.”
The men confiscated his mobile phone during the 3 pm incident.
Itumbi is known for his Hustlers Nation Investigative Bureau- a platform he uses to root for DP Ruto while exposing ‘facts’.
He has also not had kind words for the Inspector General of Police and Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr. Fred Matiangi.
The issue was reported at the Thindigua police station, police confirmed.
By Thursday evening, Itumbi’s car, a Mercedes Benz, was still parked in the parking lot next to Joes Apartment, opposite Quickmart supermarket, Kiambu Road.
Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei has linked the state to the attack, saying he was being targeted for his relentless support for the Deputy President.
According to his friends, Itumbi has been living in fear and more so after the August incident, when he claimed to have been shot at while driving in Garden estate.
He said to have heard gunshots being fired towards his car. The matter was reported at the Kasarani police station.
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