Court allows internal probe for cops held over missing Indians

A court on Wednesday dismissed an application stopping police from probing four officers accused of abducting and causing the disappearance of three men in July.

Kahawa law courts chief magistrate Diana Mochache ruled that the police Internal Affairs Unit has the mandate to bring investigate officers suspected of breaking the law.

“It is within the mandate of IAU to investigate such cases but upon conclusion, they should forward the file to the Director of Public Prosecutions through the DCI,” Mochache said in her ruling.

“They cannot come to court to bring charges, but they can conduct probe on matters concerning police officers. The application made is entirely on investigations."

AIU through their officer Michael Kirui had made an application seeking 30 days to detain the four suspects — agents of the recently disbanded Special Service Unit Peter Muthee Gachiku, Francis Muendo Ndonye, John Mwangi Kamau and Joseph Kamau Mwangi pending investigations.

 “AIU officers have faced many threats to their life in the course of gathering evidence including from serving police officers,” Kirui said.

The agents through their lawyers argued that AIU have no mandate to bring a case against police officers before court.

 “AIU lacks the mandate to bring a case against a police officer under Section 87 of the National Police Service Act,” the defence lawyer Danstan Omari said.

Omari held that the power to bring such cases to court lies with the DCI or Ipoa and NPSC through the ODPP and that IAU powers are confined within the affairs disciplinary and welfare of police officers internally.

The court disagreed prompting the defence team to move to High Court to challenge the decision.

“We will move to court on Wednesday to challenge the ruling. The outcome will inform our next move but we are ready to go all the way to the Supreme Court,” Omari said.

Meanwhile, Mochache has set Friday as the date to hear the application by IAU.

The unit seeks among other things to conduct DNA test on the four suspects to ascertain if they were at the scene of crime and also do a forensic audit of their phones.

“We will vehemently argue against the issue of conducting DNA test on the suspects as it is inhumane and tears off their dignity,” Omari said.

Gachiku, Ndonye, Kamau and Mbugua were arrested on October 21, at AIU headquarters Nairobi and are being held in different police station within the city.

In the application, Kirui avers that Gachiku was the operations commander in planning, overseeing abduction of Mohamed Zaid Sami and Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan together with their taxi driver Nicodemus Mwania Mwange.

He said Ndonye was driving a Subaru belonging to the SSU that intercepted the three. Upon abduction the motor vehicle, a Toyota Fielder was abandoned at the scene.

“On the night of their abduction, the two were in a taxi driving home when their vehicle was forcefully stopped at the Southern Bypass interchange near Ole Sereni and the three were abducted," Kirui told court.

The case was reported at Akila and Riruta police stations and was being investigated by DCI Langata but was later taken over by AIU.

“Preliminary investigations including the vehicles GPS and call data record places the suspects and their vehicles and other actors at the scene of crime and possible location where their bodies were dumped,” he said.

According to the application, Kamau was the crew while Mbugua was driving another car that is believed to have been used in dumping the bodies in Abedares Forest.

“Call data indicate that Gachiku communicated with the teams before, during and after inception," Kurui told the court.

"He was also in communication late in the night with other persons of interest, which, are yet to be identified and he is believed to have been briefing them on the operation."

Kirui pleaded to have the officer held for a month because “they are likely to interfere with investigations if released since they were working in cahoots with other police officers."

(Edited by Tabnacha O)