Kenyan politician receives SMS death threats
- Parent Category: Mobile
- Published on 16 July 2012
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A 25-year-old domestic worker has stunned a Nairobi court after she admitted to having sent death threats to Kenya’s education minister Mutula Kilonzo via text messages.
Irene Nduku Kasilu told the court she sent the messages following instructions from her boss, whom she only identified as Boniface.
The revelations by Nduku comes at a time when several politicians have claimed that their lives are in danger after receiving threats.
Some of the senior government officials who say they have received death threats include defence minister Yussuf Haji, deputy speaker Farah Maalim and Gitobu Imanyara, a member of parliament.
Nduku pleaded guilty to charges of threatening to kill the minister through a short text message sent on June 26.
Minister Mutula complained to Parliament last month that he had received two messages via his mobile phones threatening his life and that of his family members.
Part of the messages sent by Nduku and published by the Capital FM website read:
“Minister Mutula Kilonzo be ready to die. We were send (sic) by our boss to come to ur place RUNDA this weekend and shot (shot) you to death......So Mutula be ready to die this coming wkd we will even expose ur whole house in runda.”
The domestic worker claimed her boss has links with the outlawed terror group Al Shabaab and was behind a grenade attack in Nairobi two months ago which killed one person and injured several others.
“Our boss works as a caretaker …on State House Road and that he is da one who send us to threten IMANYARA....He has big connection na ALL-SHABAAB He is our BOSS. We Av done many explosion with him,” read part of the message.
The court is expected to declare Nduku's sentencing on July 25. In the meantime, Senior principal magistrate Ruth Nyambura has directed the state to produce a report of Nduku's social status, family background and marital status ahead of the ruling.
