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Nyakundi was arrested in Nairobi on Monday together with his coconspirator Emmanuel Nyamweya on allegations of extortion, blackmail, and false accusations.
Kenyan blogger Cyprian Nyakundi was on Friday arraigned at Milimani Law Courts where he was charged with attempted extortion.
Nyakundi and his co-accused Emmanuel Nyamweya pleaded not guilty to the charges before Senior Principal Magistrate Kennedy Cheruiyot and were freed on KSh300,000 cash bail each.
The two are accused of attempting to extort KSh17.5 million from Victoria Commercial Bank (VCB) in order to pull down libelous stories they had published on their website and had allegedly received a down payment of KSh1 million by the time they were arrested.
The accused persons were nabbed at Westgate Mall in Nairobi on Monday by officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI). They denied receiving an advance payment of KSh1 million from Victoria Commercial Bank Limited's CEO Yogesh Pattni.
They are said to have committed the said offenses between September 10th, 2019 and January 15th, 2020.
The court was told that Mr. Pattni had obtained orders blocking Nyakundi from publishing the defamatory articles about the bank but he ignored the order and continued posting the articles.
The case will be mentioned on February 7th, 2020.