Three DCI officers deny charges of demanding bribe through menace
Three Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officers accused of abducting a liquefied petroleum gas company manager and his colleague in Matuu, Machakos County and demanding a bribe of Sh600,000 have been charged with demanding property with menace.
Constables William Mutua, Henry Maitai and Jonathan Sankale, all attached to the DCI’s elite special service unit (SSU), are accused of demanding the bribe from Jackson Wambua Kimwele on August 1, 2020.
Kimwele had attempted to withdraw the case against the three but state counsel Geoffrey Obiri opposed his application.
He had filed an affidavit before Senior Resident Magistrate Charles Mwaniki of the Kibera Law Courts stating that he is no longer interested in pursuing the matter after he learnt that the three were police officers on duty.
Kimwele’s lawyer said it would be a perversion of justice for the prosecution to pursue the case because Kimwele will be forced to lie to the court having discovered he lodged the complaint against the officers unaware they were on duty.
However, the state counsel insisted that what the officers did is against law and they should be prosecuted for public interests.
LAW BREAKERS
Obiri said the officers are required to enforce the law and when they break the same law, they must be prosecuted for acting in the contrary to protect public trust.
On the material day, two of the officers, who were armed with AK47 rifles, entered Kimwele’s car and ordered his driver to drive to the offices while their vehicle – a Subaru Forester followed them from behind.
Upon reaching the gate, the security personnel opened the gate whereby the two vehicles entered and immediately the detectives ordered everybody to lie down and took control of the employee’s mobile phones.
They demanded the cash from Kimwele and forced him to withdraw money at Kenya Commercial Bank Matuu town’s branch ATM before they returned him to the company’s site where they forced employees to call their employer to send them money directly to their (detectives) phones and he obliged.
ROBBERY MISSION
Upon receiving the cash on their phones, they handed over the employees phones and left the company premises.
Investigations by DCI established that three travelled together from Nairobi to Machakos County and Baraka Gas Company then returned to Nairobi. Investigations further established that the officers’ mobile phones were used during the commission of the offence.
They were supposed to be on patrol in Nairobi on the night of July 31 awaiting further deployment when they proceeded to Machakos on the robbery mission.
The suspects’ lawyer had sought to have the plea taking for the three officers deferred but the magistrate threw out the application upon which they denied the charges. The magistrate will rule on their bail application on Monday.