Police impostor ‘required to take drugs daily for a condition’

The man who is being investigated for imposing himself as a senior police officer has a medical condition that requires daily administration of drugs, the commission investigating his operations heard on Wednesday.

A police clinical officer attached to the Anti-Stock Theft Unit headquarters in Gilgil, Inspector Zacchaeus Kotut, told the commission that Mr Joshua Waiganjo was taken to the camp’s dispensary by suspended ASTU Commandant Remy Ngugi for treatment.

“My boss came into the dispensary on June 23 last year accompanied by Waiganjo, introduced him to me as a friend and told me to help him,” said the witness.

Mr Kotut told the commission sitting in Nakuru that he took Mr Waiganjo’s medical history before sending him to the laboratory where samples of his blood were taken.

He added that on reading the results, he discovered that he needed specialised treatment from a doctor and referred him to a private medical practitioner in Nakuru town for further review.

The clinical officer said Mr Waiganjo returned to the clinic at ASTU-Gilgil four days later for a check-up and that he was required to start on a daily drug administration for the condition he was suffering from.

“He was advised to come back to me so that I could show him how to administer the drugs and at times I could go to his house in Gilgil town to administer the medicines,” he told the commission chaired by Mary Owour.

He told the commission that although Mr Waiganjo had never been introduced to him as an officer, there were portraits in his house of him in different police uniforms of different ranks ranging from a Senior Superintendent of Police to assistant Police Commissioner.

“I later saw Waiganjo in full uniform of the rank of an assistant Commissioner of Police and in a GK vehicle passing by the camp’s gate because he was a frequent visitor to the unit where he would visit the ASTU Commandant and he told me to recommend him to have a gate pass,” he said.

Mr Kotut said he promised to look into the matter but he did nothing because he was not supposed to take orders from officers of a different formation regardless of Mr Waiganjo’s position.

The 19th witness before the commission, a former Officer Commanding Kirengero Police Station in Subukia , Chief Inspector Julius Kyalo Kalinda told of how he was called to Kabazi trading centre by the public to arrest a person who was claiming to be the Officer Commanding Tana Delta Police Division.

“Residents told me although the man was claiming to be the Tana Delta OCPD, he looked fake and was misbehaving,” he added.

Mr Kalinda said on getting to the hotel where the man was said to be, he and his officers found that he had disappeared through a back route.

“I went to his room thinking that he would be there but all I found was a license belonging to Joshua Waiganjo and a valuation and sale agreement belonging to Lakers Auto-Spares and a vehicle insurance sticker,” he said.

He said within three days after Mr Waiganjo was spotted in Kabazi, four stolen vehicles - three of them lorries - were discovered in the area. He said the saloon car was released to officers in Kisumu, two lorries were towed to Kirengero Police Station while Waiganjo’s men managed to escape with the third one.

“When he fled, he left a saloon car at the hotel’s parking lot which we towed to Kirengero police station and after reporting the incident to the headquarters, we discovered that the car had been stolen from Kisumu,” he testified.

Mr Kalinda told the commission that two days later, he got a call from a strange number and a man who identified himself as Waiganjo said that he was the OCPD in-charge of Tana Delta and told him to release the saloon car.

“I instead told him to come to the station but he refused, he called me later and threatened me with dire consequences if I did not follow his orders,” added the officer who was later transferred to Loitoktok.

Ms Owour: What exactly did Waiganjo tell you when you refused to release the vehicle?

Mr Kalinda: He told me that if I did not release the car something would happen to me.

Ms Owuor: Do you think your transfer to Loitoktok was connected to the Waiganjo saga?

Mr Kalinda: I was transferred several months later. It could have been a normal transfer but I think it was connected to Waiganjo because four other OCSs who tried to arrest him were also moved. One to Turkana the other to Eldoret and I do not remember where the others were taken.

Ms Owuor: Did you follow up to find out what happened to the vehicles you had impounded in Subukia?

Mr Kalinda: One of them had been released to Kisumu. I tried to follow up on the lorries but we hit a deadlock since one was not registered with the Kenya Revenue Authority and the other belonged to Ilara Dairies.

ASTU Commandant’s driver, Corporal Joel Mopen narrated how he was ordered to pick Waiganjo from his home by the suspended Ngugi on his official vehicle. On another occasion he was ordered to pick him to meet former Rift Valley -provincial police boss John M’Mbijiwe. (READ: Officer ‘tried to hire’ police impostor)