Embattled Kitui South MP Dr. Rachael Kaki Nyamai is fast losing grip of her political relevance as her desperate attempt to silence Kitui-based digital journalist Emmanuel Maleve collapses under the weight of its own emptiness. What began as a dramatic arrest on 1st May 2025 has now unraveled into a slow-motion embarrassment a classic abuse of office gone wrong.
Maleve, the CEO of Hopkin Digital Media, was picked up by DCI officers in Kitui town and bundled to Nairobi in handcuffs, all because the MP couldn’t handle digital criticism. She claimed cyber harassment and bullying but four months later, she has no evidence, no case, and no leg to stand on.
This is now the third time the DCI has extended the investigation, pushing Maleve’s reporting date to 26th August 2025, without charges, without a file in court, and without a single shred of prosecutorial merit. What was meant to intimidate Maleve has instead exposed the MP’s insecurity, vindictiveness, and inability to handle public scrutiny.
> “This is not justice — it’s a political tantrum turned into a national joke,” Maleve told Kambaland Times.
“She thought she could drag me through mud and walk away clean. Now it’s clear who the real bully is.”
Insiders close to the MP now reveal a dramatic backpedal. Sources, who spoke under strict anonymity, say Kaki is begging for an out-of-court settlement and has even requested the DCI to act as her go-betweens. According to them, she is now ready to meet “Lethal Boy” Maleve in person not because of courage, but because the political blowback from both Kenyans and her own angry constituents has become unbearable.
What Dr. Kaki perhaps didn’t calculate was the political cost of trying to weaponize state agencies against a digital voice. Instead of silencing criticism, she ended up spotlighting her fragile leadership, vengeful politics, and shaky moral standing.
Maleve, who was released on a KSh 50,000 cash bail at Muthaiga Police Station, was cleared by the ODPP, which found the case too weak to prosecute. Even worse for Kaki, the Media Council of Kenya issued a damning statement, warning that her actions posed a serious threat to press freedom. MCK CEO David Omwoyo condemned the illegal seizure of Maleve’s phone without a court order an action the journalist’s legal team has since labelled unconstitutional and malicious.
> “We cannot — and must not — use the politics of blackmail and intimidation to silence dissent, control opposition, or force loyalty,” said Maleve defiantly.
Now as the DCI fumbles, the case serves as a case study in how not to handle criticism as a public servant. What was meant to humiliate a journalist has now backfired into a political self-destruction of a once-powerful MP, now reduced to seeking backdoor deals with the very voice she tried to crush.
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