How police seized evasive MP

The arrest of Suna East MP Junet Mohamed outside Nation Centre in Nairobi yesterday was as dramatic as it was fascinating.

The MP had been invited to the NTV studios for a breakfast interview and as he settled onto the set on the sixth floor of the building, a horde of detectives started swarming around Kimathi Street and Kimathi Lane, at the back of the building.

The detectives had been on Mr Mohamed’s trail since Monday evening, but he had proved to be cunning. Earlier in the morning, he had evaded arrest by using a different car to Nation Centre, outmanoeuvring the plainclothes police officers, who had ended up chasing after a decoy car.

Flying squad officers told the Nation they had been looking for the MP since Monday night.

“We sent officers to at least four locations, but we were unable to arrest him. We believe that someone was tipping him [off] on our moves,” said one of the officers.

They, at one time, believed they had him on a silver platter at a petrol station, but the MP quickly switched cars and drove off, according to one of the detectives.

OVERNIGHT STAKE-OUT

Miffed by his wiliness, the detectives rushed to his home, where they sat in an overnight stake-out. Mr Mohamed, meanwhile, drove straight to his father’s house, where he is said to have spent the night.

But inside Nation Centre, the MP was a cornered fox. His resourcefulness had come to an end and so, after the NTV interview — at around 8am — he sought uneasy refuge inside the office of Nation Media Group general manager for TV Linus Kaikai.

Nervous and evidently uncomfortable, Mr Mohamed asked his host, Debarl Inea, to show him an alternative exit from the building but changed his mind when he realised all the exits were being staked out by men with peculiarly puffed chests and dart-eyed gazes.

His security detail, at around 8.30am, suggested that they use a taxi to shirk the detectives, but Mr Mohamed felt that would be risky. Instead, he fished out his mobile phone and called Cord leader Raila Odinga and Siaya Senator James Orengo.

Mr Orengo arrived a few minutes past 9am and walked straight into Mr Kaikai’s office. A few minutes later, the head of the Kenya Police flying squad team, Mr Mohamed Said, barged into the already crowded room.

AGREEMENT WITH DETECTIVES

He, Mr Orengo and Mr Mohamed negotiated a quick agreement: the trapped MP would be escorted out of Nation Centre into Mr Orengo’s black BMW. To avoid embarrassing him, he would not be confronted by the pack of plainclothes police officers hovering around the length and breadth of Kimathi Street, and they would all drive happily in a convoy towards the headquarters of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.

That gentlemen’s agreement, however, was broken the moment Mr Mohamed walked past the security barriers outside Nation Centre.

The detectives, who had waited for him for hours and had taunted him repeatedly by phone, were eager to lay their hands on him.

The Cord team, however, was not going to let go of their man easily, and a commotion ensued, during which a few choice words were exchanged.

Eventually, Mr Mohamed, aided a great deal by Mr Orengo, managed to elbow his way into the waiting BMW, where he was joined by Mr Said and they drove off towards Kiambu Road.

***

WHEN POLICE LEFT NOTHING TO CHANCE

JUNET MOHAMED

Police had unsuccessfully tried to locate him at his house but surrounded Nation Centre on learning he was appearing on an early morning television show.
11pm, Monday: Police surveillance team triangulate Mohamed’s phone in Kilimani.
5am, Tuesday: Police locate Mohamed’s phone at Nation Centre and surround the building.
9.10am: Orengo arrives at Nation Centre to accompany Mohamed.
9.30am: Mohamed arrested and escorted to DCI headquarters.
1.50pm. Escorted out of the headquarters in a police vehicle.

JOHNSON MUTHAMA

11pm Monday: Police camp at the main gate of his Runda residence.
11.30am Tuesday: Orengo arrives and some of the officers accompany him into the residence.
12.05pm: Muthama arrested and escorted to DCI headquarters.
1.50pm: Muthama leaves the headquarters in an unmarked police vehicle.

FERDINAND WAITITU; MOSES KURIA

1.45pm: Both arrive at DCI headquarters and are immediately ushered into police cars and the convoy drives off.

ALL OF THEM
3pm: Appear before Magistrate Daniel Ogembo, who grants the prosecution’s request to hold them for four days pending investigations.

By Fred Mukinda