A Nairobi court has dismissed the state's case against Rose Njeri following her arrest for creating a system that enabled Kenyans to automatically generate emails on the Finance Bill 2025.
In a ruling issued on Friday, June 20, Milimani Principal Magistrate Geoffrey Onsaringo stated that detailed offences in the charge sheet did not meet the threshold for a valid charge.
The state had planned to charge the software engineer for contravening the Computer Misuse and Cyber Crime Act, section 16.
"In light of the same statutes, I hereby refuse to admit the two counts of charges against the suspect. She is hereby discharged under Section 890(5) of the Constitution that requires disclosure of the offence," the Magistrate ruled.
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Njeri had been arrested after creating a platform that allowed Kenyans to share their views on the Finance Bill.
According to the state, as documented in the initial charge sheet, the move by Njeri caused interference with the email system.
"Rose Njeri Tunguru: On the 19th day of May,2025, at 2001 hrs at an unknown location within the Republic of Kenya, hosted knowingly made https://civicemail.netlify.app/ that automatically generated you and sent a mass program emails at to [email protected] which is the official systems of the finance committee, thereby interfering with the normal functioning of the systems," read the charge sheet in part.
Following her arrest, there was public uproar, which saw notable lawyers, including former Chief Justice David Maraga, in court to support the software engineer.
She was later released on a Ksh100,000 cash bail.
On her part, she stated that the intention of the state was to intimidate her, adding that she only wanted Kenyans to be engaged in the Finance Bill conversation.
"You could see the errors that they made on the charge sheet. They wrote that I was male, and there were typos. They know that they have nothing on me.
"They are just infringing on my rights. I am just an ordinary Kenyan, trying to hustle, and they came for me that way. I cannot back down," she stated.
