Did these policemen attempt to cover-up for their boss?
Kayole OCS Robert Wabeire is on the spotlight again following accusations that he engineered the unlawful locking up of three of his neighbours at a different police station in Nairobi.
The events allegedly happened on Monday evening in Santon estate in Nairobi, where the OCS resides.
One of his neighbours, Moses Mwenda and his cousin James Ntoiti, who are students at the University of Nairobi and Egerton University claim that they were beaten up and harassed by the OCS for knocking at the shared gate because they had misplaced their keys.
Trouble started when the wife of the OCS woke up to open the gate for his neighbours and when she stepped out the OCS came running after her and allegedly started asking the neighbours if they thought they were the caretakers of the building or the watchmen.
Barely a week ago, the Kayole OCS was summoned for questioning at the county police headquarters after he released a suspect on a Sh1,000 cash bail. The suspect had hit and killed a first year college student, Agnes Nyambura.
In the recent incident, his victims tried to explain that they had misplaced their keys but he could hear none of it.
After getting news of the incident, a brother-in-law to one of the two students, Mr. Fredrick Maina, convinced to report the matter to Santon Police Post.
They recorded the a statement at the police station and were given an OB number 36/08/82 for reference.
But shortly after leaving the police post the three of them were picked up by a police car and driven to Kasarani Police Station, where they were again beaten up by the police officers “for reporting and accusing a senior police officer”.
IN HIDING
It took the intervention of Babu Owino, the Students Organisation of Nairobi University (Sonu) leader, and a Mr. John Okurutu who works at the IG office at Jogoo house, for them to be released.
According to Kenyan laws, anyone arrested should be taken to court within 24 hours. This did not happen. A sister to one of the two victims, Judy Makena, says there is no proof to show they were in Kasarani Police Station because their names are not in the OB book.
The Santon Police Post has refused to take their statement again after they were released from Kasarani Police Station.
The officers at the police post claim there is no proof that they were arrested and that the injuries they have did not come from any of the police officers.
The victims of the incident have since gone into hiding at a relative’s house for fear of further harassment by the police.
Initially, Kayole police chief Ali Nuno said that he did not have any information about the incidence but later called Nairobi News to clarify that there had been an altercation between OCS Robert Wabeire and the two university students but declined to give more information about the incidence.
Late on Friday Moses, James and Fredrick reported the matter to the CID, who said they had taken over the case and that they will follow it up.
Kasarani OCS Mr. Robinson Mboloi said he is investigating why the victims were not booked and taken to court the following day.