IMPOSTER

Man accused of impersonating senior cop seeks DPP Haji's removal

Waiganjo has filed a petition at the Public Service Commission.

In Summary

• In 2015, Waiganjo was convicted on five counts and sentenced to serve five years in prison.

• He filed an appeal before the High Court, which led a ruling.

A man accused of impersonating a senior police officer wants DPP Noordin Haji removed from office for disobeying court orders that acquitted him.

Joshua Waiganjo has filed a petition at the Public Service Commission seeking Haji’s removal for failure to obey the orders and insisting on prosecuting him.

Through lawyers Danstan Omari and Cliff Ombeta, Waiganjo says he was an AP reservist with the National Police Service and was later promoted to the rank of assistant commissioner of police in 2003.

This, he claims, was until he was arrested in 2012 for participating in the armed robbery of one Francis Kamau and he was later charged at the Naivasha law courts.

In 2015, Waiganjo was convicted on five counts and sentenced to serve five years in prison.

He filed an appeal before the High Court, which led a ruling.

Waiganjo claims that on April 8 last year, there was correspondence between the DCI Naivasha and DCI headquarters in Kiambu which highlighted the loopholes by the prosecution in proving beyond reasonable doubt that he was guilty.

“On May 8 2020, a ruling was delivered by the Honourable Joe Omido that the case brought against the petitioner be dismissed since the prosecution did not have enough evidence to convict the petitioner,” the petition reads.

It is his argument that the correspondence by the DCI office, which is constitutionally mandated to carry out investigations, concluded there is lack of enough and substantial relevant evidence to sustain his conviction.

“On May 26, 2020, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations wrote a letter the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in Naivasha indicating that it (DCI) did not wish to continue with the case against Mr. Joshua Waiganjo, since they were unable to trace the key witnesses and lacked solid evidence to adduce before the court,” the petition reads.

However, the DPP has insisted his office has evidence on the charges preferred against Waiganjo and wants the retrial to proceed.

“The mandate of the DPP is that of prosecution and not of investigations. Notwithstanding, as per the Constitution of Kenya 2010, the DPP has nowhere in this instant matter issued a directive to the mandated body DCI to conduct any further investigation so they may prove their case,” Waiganjo said.

He argues that several years down the line, the matter before the court has never commenced because of lack sufficient material to maintain the charges preferred against him.

“The actions of the DPP amount to abuse of office and lack of proper discharge of his mandate consequentially being incompetent to hold office as the Director of Public Prosecutions,” he argues.

Waiganjo has filed a petition at the Public Service Commission.
Waiganjo has filed a petition at the Public Service Commission.
Image: FILE
WATCH: The latest videos from the Star