Officer faces new murder claims

Administration Police officers in a Nairobi court on July 18, 2016 where they were charged with murdering a lawyer, his client and their taxi driver. One of the officers has been accused of fatally shooting a man on June 2. PHOTO | PAUL WAWERU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • According to the investigators, the officer had tampered with evidence by ensuring a page where the arrest details were recorded was plucked out and subsequently transferred from the Occurrence Book at the Kamulu Police Station.
  • Investigators managed to recover the details on another page and in the cell register, indicating that the deceased was detained at Kamulu before he was collected by the AP officer.

One of the four Administration Police officers charged last week with the killing of a lawyer, his client and their taxi driver has been implicated in another fatal shooting in Syokimau.

Detectives said they had found sufficient evidence linking the officer to a June 2 fatal shooting.

According to the investigators, the officer had tampered with evidence by ensuring a page where the arrest details were recorded was plucked out and subsequently transferred from the Occurrence Book at the Kamulu Police Station.

The shocking revelation is a strong indication that the recorded cases of extrajudicial killings may only be a tip of the iceberg.

Investigators managed to recover the details on another page and in the cell register, indicating that the deceased was detained at Kamulu before he was collected by the AP officer.

According to police regulations, there should be uniform record keeping and all the details of arrested suspects must be entered in the Occurrence Book and cell register, indicating their names and the offences with which they are charged.

Investigations established that the man had been found injured in a suspicious vehicle at Drumvale in Kamulu on June 1 and police were alerted.

He was arrested by AP officers and taken to the police station.

It was established that the vehicle he was in had been stolen in Syokimau. The man, however, insisted that he had been carjacked on Mombasa Road and dumped in Kamulu.

While in custody, where he had been taken for questioning, reports indicated that he had called his relatives.

The following day at around 11am, he called them again and told them he would be transferred to Syokimau.

The family went to the Syokimau AP post and Mlolongo Police Station but did not find him in custody. There were also no records at both stations indicating that he had been detained there.

CONDUCT PROBE
Other records obtained by the detectives show that the man was collected by the AP officer and two others on June 2 at around 6pm and the Kamulu station boss, Inspector Peter Nyaga, was informed accordingly.

That same evening, police reported a shootout in Mlolongo in which one person was shot dead. The deceased, it was later established, was the suspect police had picked up from Kamulu.

At the Kamulu station, detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) retrieved details including the date and time of arrest, the identity of the arresting officer and the name of the officer who picked him up from Kamulu.

Kayole DCI boss Ayub Bakari, however, told the Nation that officers there were only handling the detention of the suspect and the issue of missing records, and not the killing, a matter that he said was being handled by Athi River police.

So far, at least seven people have recorded their statements.

The same suspect is also being investigated in the killings of two other people Jacob Mwendwa and Elizabeth Nduku Kimatu in Mlolongo on May 27.

Their families have written to the police boss and the Independent Policing Oversight Authority to investigate the involvement of the officer in the fatal shooting.

The main suspect in both cases was charged alongside his colleagues with the murder of lawyer Willie Kimani, his client Josephat Mwendwa and taxi driver Joseph Muiruri on June 23.