Muhoro features yet again in another major scandal

Director of Criminal Investigations Ndegwa Muhoro during a press briefing at Police District Headquarters in Gatanga on July 30, 2015. Mr Muhoro has been adversely mentioned in the Tatu City scandal for allegedly protecting and sharing investigation files with former Central Bank of Kenya Governor Nahashon Nyagah and industrialist Vimal Shah. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Indeed, the DCI has sometimes been seen as the go-to institution for public officials who want to hide their own transgressions quickly in the guise of requesting for investigations.
  • Under Mr Muhoro, the DCI has been discredited for bungled investigations, collusion with suspects and suspicious disappearances and murders.

Mr Ndegwa Muhoro’s name has featured in a number of scandals and recent allegations by lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi of his involvement in the Tatu City saga once again turns the spotlight on the head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.

Indeed, the DCI has sometimes been seen as the go-to institution for public officials who want to hide their own transgressions quickly in the guise of requesting for investigations.

For example, when the National Youth Service (NYS) scandal broke out, then Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru, who to date maintains she was the whistle-blower, wrote to Mr Muhoro and not the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to take up the investigations.

When investigation was complete, the report was handed to Ms Waiguru though ordinarily such reports should be submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko.

Under the same ministry but at the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF), the embattled board chairman Bruce Odhiambo also approached Mr Muhoro to investigate the alleged loss of Sh180 million paid to Quarandum Ltd for non-existent ICT consultancy works.

Unlike the NYS report the one on the Youth Fund has never been made public.

Under Mr Muhoro, the DCI has been discredited for bungled investigations, collusion with suspects and suspicious disappearances and murders.

Mr Muhoro was first appointed on the eve of the promulgation of the Constitution on August 27, 2010 in what was seen as former President Mwai Kibaki’s way of evading the rigours of the new Constitution in appointing public officers of his rank.

At the time of his appointment, Mr Muhoro was the Commandant of the Kenya Police Staff College, Loresho. He then replaced Mr Simon Gatiba Karanja who died in May 2010.

FILE CONFISTICATION

Apart from the NYS and Youth Fund, Mr Muhoro has been adversely mentioned in the Tatu City scandal for allegedly protecting and sharing investigation files with former Central Bank of Kenya Governor Nahashon Nyagah and industrialist Vimal Shah.

Mr Muhoro has dismissed the accusations.

Mr Nyagah and Mr Shah are at the centre of a tussle for the multi-billion-shilling Tatu City in which they are accused of attempting to grab the investment from Mr Stephen Jennings, the principal investor.

“We are dismayed by the conduct of Mr Muhoro and the manner he (Mr Muhoro) handled the file. It is absurd for an officer of his rank to grab the investigation file from a junior officer and share the information with people he is supposed to prosecute,” lawyer Abdullahi says.

Mr Abdullahi had told the court that his client, Mr Jennings, made a complaint to the CID on August 3 against Mr Nyagah and, after investigations, Inspector Ezekiel Masaka recommended that a number of people be charged.

But before the file was forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Abdullahi claimed, the CID boss confiscated it.

“We have information that he has been calling the suspects and sifting through the evidence to scuttle the prosecution,” he said.