Nine students from Moi University who were arrested in connection to the circulation of hate leaflets will be further detained until Friday

This comes after an Eldoret court granted the police three days to detain the students as they conduct investigations into the matter. 

The students were arrested for circulating hate leaflets through their WhatsApp group that warned some communities living in Uasin Gishu County to leave the area ahead of the general election scheduled for Tuesday next week, should they choose to vote in a pattern contrary to what they wanted.

Investigating officer Sophia Ibrahim asked the court for the detention of the nine suspects, saying the leaflets contained information warning certain communities to leave Cheplaskei and Kesses in Uasin Gishu immediately if they will not vote for Kenya Kwanza presidential candidate William Ruto.

Copies of the leaflets were presented before the court as evidence and the case will be mentioned on Friday.

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Principal Magistrate Onkoba Mogire ordered that the nine students be held in custody at the Langas Police Station for the next three days as the police continued with the investigations.

Eldoret South detectives caught up with the suspects on Monday in Kesses at Moi University's main campus after they had shared the images of the leaflets via their WhatsApp group.

However, the students said they were not the authors of the leaflets and one student named Beatrice Wangari Kumari told the court the source of the leaflets was in Central Kenya, a piece of information they claim to have shared with the police.

She said they should not be further detained since the police already know where the author of the leaflets is.

"I am a student at Moi University. The said leaflets came to our WhatsApp group through another social media source. Police should not detain us but go for the original author and release us," Kumari said.

The leaflets have caused some tension and elders from different communities living in Uasin Gishu County have demanded that the relevant authorities investigate the source of the leaflets and take stern action against the perpetrators.