Police officer to face charges of assaulting Capital FM journalist
A senior police officer accused of assaulting Capital FM News presenter Angela Muiruri in 2020 is expected to be charged with two counts of assault.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji on Tuesday directed Inspector General Japhet Koome to file criminal charges against Superintendent of Police (SP) Samuel Boit for assaulting the journalist on December 19, 2020 in Kileleshwa.
According to an inquiry by the Internal Affairs Unit (IAU), the attack took place during an operation targeting those who breached Covid-19 regulations.
According to IAU, the superintendent of police, applied excessive force on the radio presenter, warranting him to be charged with two counts of assault causing actual bodily harm, contrary to section 251 of the Penal Code.
Boit is based at the Nairobi area police headquarters and at the time of the incident, he was the officer in charge of the operations to ensure compliance with Covid-19 regulations.
The radio presenter was among 21 women assaulted during a security operation in Nairobi’s Kileleshwa estate.
According to the former Miss Kenya-USA, she was in the company of her friends and were about to leave in order to beat the 10pm curfew when all hell broke loose.
More than a dozen police officers stormed the garden party and ordered everyone to sit down.
Muiruri got most of the officers’ wrath after she questioned their actions and was left nursing injuries.
“My words made the officers mad because I was slapped, and when I continued to question them on why they mishandling women, one of the officers proceeded to whip me,” she said then.
According to Muiruri, the officers kept them at the parking lot way past curfew hours before being bundled into a waiting lorry at the gate and driven to Muthangari Police Station where they were booked, only to be freed at 4am, having parted with Sh1,000.
“We were, however, forced to sign a paper that indicated that we had been granted free bond for violating night curfew despite having paid Sh1,000 each,” Muiruri said.
A video of that night’s events, which has since gone viral on social media, has caused an uproar, prompting the then Inspector General of Police Hilary Mutyambai to issue a statement denying allegations of police brutality.
She later filed a formal complaint at the KICC Police station against Boit, whom she had identified as the person behind her assault. This was after attempts to report the matter at Kileleshwa, Kilimani, and Nairobi area police stations failed.
The report attached a medical report from a Nairobi hospital that showed she suffered severe bruises on her lower limb.
She said she would stop at nothing and was willing to face the officer who assaulted her in court.
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