This was denied by Kerubo. Wathigo who was in the Pharmacy testified that Kerubo told the DCJ that she needed to be searched. The DCJ responded that Kerubo “should know people around here” and walked away to the counter and from there, DCJ directed Kerubo to apologise to her.
Did she brandish pistol?
The DCJ further informed the Tribunal that she was without her bodyguard, (Annalice) Kaburu, because she had given her leave of absence to attend to family matters in Meru. But Kaburu stated that she came back on December 26, 2011and that she phoned the DCJ the following day. So, there was no reason for the DCJ to be without her bodyguard on the December 31 2011.
The other matter is whether the DCJ brandished a pistol at Kerubo threatening to kill her. The cameras, which would have captured what was happening at the point of entry and point of exit of the DCJ were said not to be working. That was the evidence of Makori, who works in the Control Room, Meshack, the Chief Security Officer of the Village Market; and Kiplimo, who was working with the CID in Cybercrime Unit. So, the only evidence was that of the DCJ against that of Kerubo and Makhanu.
We have already found that Kerubo was a credible witness but it may not be out of place to show why she should be believed in this issue, too. Her nose was pinched outside the Belladonna Pharmacy and yet she went back to her security desk to proceed with her duties.
We ask ourselves what then made her scared to the marrow and caused her to go home prematurely and then straight to bed until the following morning, as narrated by her husband, (Bernard) Morara. Certainly it was not the pinching of the nose.
Police failures
Equally it was not the realization that the woman she was confronting was a VIP because the DCJ herself told her inside the Pharmacy who she was. The only plausible explanation is what she said: that the DCJ brandished a pistol and threatened to shoot her. It is significant that Kerubo only referred to the pistol incident in the report captured in the occurrence book at Gigiri Police Station. It appeared to the Tribunal that had there been no pistol incident, no report would have been made to the police as despite having her nose pinched Kerubo went back and carried on with her duties.
The DCJ’s evidence is she has no licence to carry one. Her driver, Omondi and bodyguard, Kaburu, both carry a pistol in their assignment with the DCJ and both stated that the pistols were in their possession throughout. We find Omondi to be an unabashed liar. He claimed that he went into the Village Market on that fateful day with his pistol on his body and that he had to show his police identity card to Makhanu.
The latter denied there having being any person who passed through the security desk with a pistol on that day. We believe Makhanu on this issue for the simple reason that this is an occurrence, which one would never have forgotten.
Besides, in his earlier statement before the JSC, Omondi said that he entered the Village Market without being checked. He also contradicted the DCJ in that he claimed he saw Kerubo pulling the handbag from the DCJ while the DCJ said no one touched her bag.
Here we must observe that the investigators, if they had pulled their weight, could have produced independent witnesses to prove or disprove that assertion of brandishing a pistol. There were two independent guards close to the Security Desk: one was Peter guarding the Diamond Trust Bank, according to Mungai and the other KK Security in the parking lot.
