Detective denies abducting Speaker

A detective Thursday denied having anything to do with the disappearance of Embu County Assembly Speaker Kariuki Mate.

Mr Nicholas Muriuki Kangangi was charged with abducting and confining the Speaker in an unknown location.

The court released the Pangani Police Station-based sergeant on a Sh100,000 bond after rejecting the request by the prosecution to have him further held in custody over “incomplete investigations.”

Mr Kangangi was told to appear before investigators for two days after depositing his bond and return to court on May 26 for further orders.

“What the prosecution has tried to achieve is reactionary... they have merely bowed to pressure from the public and media. There is no shred of evidence to link him to any abduction whatsoever.

Furthermore there has been no complaint lodged at any police station,” said his lawyer, Mr Julius Anyoka.

Mr Anyoka told senior principal magistrate Peter Ndwiga that Mr Kangangi was arrested “on the strength of a mere phone call” that was received at the time Mr Mate disappeared.

“They have now charged him and his plea is that of not guilty. We are ready for a hearing,” he said.

Thursday, Starehe criminal investigations chief Ndumba Thangalani, who is listed as the first witness in the case, said police had interrogated the Speaker’s driver and personal assistant but “we have not found any credible information to charge them”.

Mr Thangalani said that depending on further information gathered in the case, the two may become prosecution witnesses.

Mr Mate is still missing. Members of the Embu County Assembly and the Speaker’s wife have asked that the police to produce him.

Ms Caroline Wangare on Wednesday told Mr Justice Weldon Korir that her husband disappeared at the hands of a police officer and demanded his unconditional release.

The Embu MCAs want Inspector-General of Police David Kimaiyo summoned to court to shed light on where and why Mr Mate was being held.

But the judge declined to grant the order and instead told them to serve police before a decision is made.

“There is no sufficient evidence before me to issue summons compelling the police to appear in court to explain Mr Mate’s whereabouts,” Mr Justice Korir said on Wednesday.

According to investigators, Mr Mate allegedly received a phone call at around 4.30pm from a police officer he was scheduled to meet at an eatery.

A statement by the officer at the Kilimani Police Station states that he made the call but the Speaker did not answer.

Detectives have been frustrated in tracking him as the signals of his phone have been traced back to where he left it on the day he disappeared.

In Embu, his parents appealed to the government to step up the search for their son.

Speaking to the press in their Kanyuambora home, Mr Bernard Mate and Mrs Edith Mugo said the disappearance had caused them extreme agony.