• Godfrey Wachira, Violet Nyagah, Jeph Owino and Denis Mutua denied four charges before Kisumu chief magistrate Peter Gesora Monday.
• In the first account, they were charged with assault and causing actual bodily harm.
Image: FILE
Four police officers have been charged with assault of former Gem MP Jakoyo Midiwo.
Godfrey Wachira, Violet Nyagah, Jeph Owino and Denis Mutua denied four charges before Kisumu chief magistrate Peter Gesora Monday.
In the first account, they were charged with assault and causing actual bodily harm.
Court documents say the four officers jointly assaulted Midiwo on February 10 at Central Police station within Kisumu county.
In the second count, the officers were charged with assaulting Elijah Oyugi, Jakoyo's driver. They were also charged with stealing.
The court heard that on February 10, at Central Police Station the officers jointly stole a mobile phone make Infinix Imei No 353335095163760 valued at Sh15,000 the property of Midiwo.
They requested to be released on a reasonable bond through their lawyer Shem Omondi, said that they were officers and needed to attend to their duties.
Chief magistrate Gesora freed them on Sh50,000 bond or a cash bail of Sh20,000 each.
Nyanza regional police commander Vincent Makhoha confirmed the arrest of the officers two weeks ago.
They are alleged to have assaulted Jakoyo and his driver at his residence on February 9 in Milimani estate following a disagreement.
They later arrested the duo and locked them up at Kisumu Central police station without booking them in the Occurrence Book.
County police boss Ranson Lolmodooni said the officers were not on official duty at the time of the incident.
“They were not deployed,” he said. The officers are based at Crime Prevention Unit, regional headquarters communication, Kondele, and Railways police stations.
“The officers have been summoned. We are taking their statements before taking further action,” he said.
Lolmodooni said they had recorded a statement from the former National Assembly Minority Leader and given him a P3 form.
Earlier, Lolmodooni said Jakoyo’s driver had been cited for a traffic offence after which the officers followed him to the former legislator’s residence.
“The officers are accused of assaulting Midiwo when he tried to intervene to know what the problem was,” the police boss said.
The two later ended up at the police cells at night. Lolmodooni said they discovered that Jakoyo was in custody on the morning of February 10.
He described the incident as unfortunate, saying the officers acted unprofessionally and must be held accountable in order to serve as a lesson to others.
Midiwo said he was woken up by his security guard following a commotion between his driver Ochieng' and five police officers - three men and two women.
“When I woke up I found the officers in my compound. They attacked Ochieng' and when I asked them why they were in my compound, one of them started beating me,” he said.
"The officers were drunk, according to a female officer who tried to intervene after she recognised me during the incident, Midiwo added.
While on my way to Kisumu Central police station to report the matter, Midiwo said the officers followed and attacked him before bundling him into their Probox car.
“They took me to Kisumu Central police station. At the station one of the officers opened the cells, slapped and wrestled me to the ground before locking me up,” Midiwo said.
He added, “I was released upon the intervention of the Kisumu Central police station OCS and OCPD.”
Midiwo and Ochieng' obtained P3 forms to use in filing an assault case against the five.
“I will lodge a complaint with the Independent Policing Oversight Authority. Kenyans cannot continue to have rogue officers in the National Police Service,” Midiwo said.