Judge Chitembwe says $7,000 he had during arrest was for son's university fees

High Court judge Said Chitembwe has told a court that being found with dollars is not unusual as his family operates a foreign currency account.

Chitembwe wondered why the police suspected him of fraud when they found him in possession of $7,000 in his pocket when he was arrested alongside Justice Aggrey Muchelule in July.

The two judges were arrested after police said they got a tip off the two had intended to receive a bribe.

But Chitembwe, in an affidavit filed at the High Court through the law firm of Otieno Okeyo, denied any involvement in fraud, saying him being found with dollars should not be suspect.

“As a family we have kept a dollar account under my wife’s name for over three years and as such it is not unusual or suspect for me to have US dollars in my possession as is proposed by the police,” said Chitembwe.

Further he explained that the dollars in question were in his pocket and he voluntarily surrendered them to the police although he intended to use the cash to pay for his sons’s school fees.

According to the affidavit, after the search in his chambers on July 22, he removed $7,000 from his pockets "for my son's school fees at Edith Cowan University, Perth Australia", which he handed to the police.

“I was waiting to find time and go to the bank for help on how to transfer the money directly to the university as requested by my son when I was unceremoniously and embarrassingly roughed up and arrested within court precincts for no crime at all,” the judge said.

The Judge who sits at the Civil division at Milimani law courts, said the dollars had been in his possession for two days before his arrest because he had not been able to transfer it directly to his son’s university.

His contention is that out of his own choice, he gave out the dollars, arguing that it is grossly wrong and blatantly misleading for police officers to claim that the $7,000 was recovered from him in their unlawful search.

Edited by CM