In Kiambu, police officers administer the law with a hint of ‘fitina’

By Peter Kimani

Kenya: This sounds stranger than fiction. On December 2 last year, Kiambu resident Paul Mwangi lent his car to son-in-law Bernard Njonge Gitau.

While driving along the Nairobi-Kiambu Road, Gitau was accosted by three police officers. One allegedly jumped on the Suzuki van, registration KAN 309Y and broke the windscreen after hitting it repeatedly with a baton.

When Gitau went to report the damage of the vehicle at Kiambu Police Station, he was arrested and charged with driving a defective vehicle.

Gitau denied the charges and was released on a Sh20,000 cash bail. Armed with a court order, Gitau went to see Kiambu base commander Gabriel Mbiti Mulei on December 24 to compel him to get his officers to record statements and procure an inspection report of the vehicle.

Instead, he was charged for the second time with the same offences afresh. Again, he denied the charges and was released on a cash bail of Sh20,000. Now he had two traffic cases, numbers 1145/2013 and 1224/2013.

A week later, on December 31, Paul Mwangi, armed with the same court order, attempted to obtain the elusive documents from Mulei.

He, too, was similarly arrested and arraigned before the chief magistrate’s court in Kiambu He informed the court that the traffic cops had a vendetta against him. The case was dismissed and Mwangi released unconditionally.

On January 2 this year, Kiambu OCPD, one Chirchir, called Mwangi offering to settle all the cases and have him compensated for the smashed windscreen. When Mwangi visited the station, he was arrested and charged for allowing a defective vehicle to be driven.