Prominent Kenyan tech blogger Robert Alai has been arrested after he posted a series of allegations on his Twitter account, accusing a government official of ordering murder hits on two men.

Alai, who blogs on techmtaa.com about technology in Kenya, posted on his @RobertAli Twitter account to his over 20,000 followers that he believed that government spokesperson “Alfred Mutua ordered the execution of G.P. Oula and Oscar King’ara calling them Mungiki. He wants to do the same to me.”

Oula and King'ara were two human rights activists in Kenya.

Subsequently, Mutua has laid a charge against Alai for violating section 29 of the Kenya Information and Communication Act.

According to this section of the Act, “a person who by means of a licensed telecommunication system a) sends a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character, or b) sends a message that he knows to be false for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another person commits an offense and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding fifty thousand shillings, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, or to both.”

Police then summoned Alai for questioning, and the blogger reportedly presented himself to at the Nairobi Area Criminal Investigation Department (CID) offices late yesterday afternoon, where he issued a statement.

Subsequently though, police have arrested Alai on a charge of contravening the Kenyan Information and Communication act. And Alai has reportedly spent the night behind bars.

“We are charging him with misuse of telecommunication which is contrary to section 29 of the Kenya information and communication act,” Nicholas Kamwende, Nairobi provincial CID officer told Kenya’s Citizen TV.

UPDATE:

Alai has denied charges of sending "abusive and annoying messages" to government spokesperson Alfred Mutua, and the blogger has reportedly been released on a Ksh100,000 cash bail.