The ongoing vetting of senior police officers in Rift Valley went into a private session Sunday, when former Nakuru Divisional Criminal Investigation Officer (DCIO) Collins Wekesa took the stand.
It is alleged that during Mr Wekesa’s tenure at the local police division, there was a surge in kidnappings and disappearance of suspects from police custody that was widely blamed on CID officers.
Wekesa is currently the Kuresoi DCIO.
At some point, National Police Service Commission (NPSC) Chairman Johnston Kavuludi directed all journalists and the public to vacate the vetting hall at the Nakuru Dog Section Unit where the commission has been sitting for the past week.
But before that, Kavuludi had said the commission will be seeking to establish the officer’s role in the said kidnappings and subsequent disappearances.
National security
Mr Kavuludi declared the entire session would be private because the matters raised touched on national security.
“His vetting touches on various elements of national security and should be conducted in camera,” said Kavuludi.
He said the commission would consider taking further action against the officer after completing the process and compiling its findings.
The commission will be probing how, among other things, in 2013, five people reportedly went missing at the hands of CID officers.
In August 2013, for instance, two people suspected to be police officers allegedly arrested 30-year-old Jones Mike Tela, a motorcycle operator who has never been seen since.
His wife, Patroba Abulamsi, has been waiting by the phone as hopes of his return dwindle.
When The Standard interviewed her a few months ago, Ms Abulamsi said Tela was bundled into a white Probox, KBP 124C, and taken to Nakuru CID offices and she has not heard from him since.
She said even after she recorded a statement under OB35/10/9/2013, the police have allegedly failed to take action against a suspect who was positively identified by a witness.
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There are claims that four months later the same officers arrested the witness who was locked up and moved to Nanyuki a day later. Wekesa then insisted he was to answer to five counts of robbery with violence.
However, the commission noted Wekesa failed to explain why police did not arrest the witness when he was recording the statement but only took action after an officer was implicated.
During the same period, Moses Ndeda, 27, allegedly also disappeared and has never been traced, while his case remains unsolved. A friend he was with claimed two plainclothes police officers arrested and bundled him into a waiting private car.
NPSC was also told of a senior officer who was interdicted for eight years for alleged forgery and stealing Sh250,000 that was meant for the renovation of Gigiri Police Station.
Senior Superintendent Isaac Kigode, who was reinstated after a court acquitted him, said someone senior in the service engineered his arrest, interdiction and prosecution for reasons he could not understand.
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