- Sources said the officer had sent emissaries to Angela begging for a settlement out of court.
- This prompted his lawyers to plead with officials at the Internal Affairs Unit who are handling the matter to extend the cash bail by a week.
A planned plea taking by a senior police officer who had been arrested and released over the assault of Capital FM journalist Angela Muiruri was on Tuesday postponed for a week.
Postponement, among other reasons, is reportedly aimed at enabling Senior Superintendent of Police Samuel Boit who is based in Turkana Central to settle the matter with Angela out of court, officials said.
Boit was arrested and released on cash bail pending arraignment over the assault.
He was later taken to Capital Hill police station where he was processed and further released on a cash bail of Sh40,000 ahead of the planned plea taking on December 6, police said.
But the cash bail was on Tuesday extended to December 13, when he is expected to take a plea if he would not have reached an agreement with the complainant, officials said.
Sources said the officer had sent emissaries to Angela begging for a settlement out of court.
This prompted his lawyers to plead with officials at the Internal Affairs Unit who are handling the matter to extend the cash bail by a week.
It is not clear if the victim is ready to negotiate over the incident which happened on December 19, 2020, at a residence in Kileleshwa, Nairobi.
The move to arrest and bond Boit followed a directive by the Director of Public Prosecutions of police to charge him with assault.
There have been past futile efforts to reconcile the two.
IAU established that Boit, 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.
At the time of the incident, he was the officer in charge of the operations to ensure compliance with Covid-19 regulations.
Angela was among 21 women who were allegedly assaulted during a security operation in Nairobi's Kileleshwa estate at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the time, Angela, a former Miss Kenya-USA pageant winner, said they were about to leave a garden party when more than ten police officers stormed in and ordered everyone to sit.
"We had finished by 8:30 pm and the police arrived at 9:10 pm as we were leaving," she said at the time.
When she questioned the police's actions, she was slapped and was left nursing injuries.
The other women were also whipped, and all were detained in the parking lot way past curfew hours.
"As a citizen, I understand my rights and I say you cannot manhandle women like that. I think that made the officer mad, and as I was saying that, I was slapped, but I tapped back at the officer, and that is when he proceeded to whip me," she said.
The women were then bundled into a waiting police lorry and driven to Muthangari police station where they were booked and later released at 4 am after parting with Sh1,000 each.
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 to Kileleshwa, Kilimani, and Nairobi area police.
The report attached a medical report from a Nairobi hospital that showed she suffered severe bruises on her lower limb.
A clip showing what transpired went viral on the internet, sparking Kenyans' outrage.