Court allow police to hold suspects of a criminal group for a week

MUHURI a human right board member Khelef Khalifa (right) after he handed over two criminal suspects, Joseph Kangethe (right) and John Githinji, at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters, in Nyeri.They two were arrested pending further investigations. [Photo: Kibata Kihu/Standard]

Police have been allowed to continue holding two suspected gang members as investigations are concluded.

Chief Magistrate Wendy Kagendo allowed the police to detain Joseph Kang’ethe alias Wakinanyu and John Githinji alias Mrefu until October 30, when the matter will be mentioned.

Detectives said the two were on their list of most wanted criminals in the area.

The suspects surrendered to central regional Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters on Monday.

In a sworn affidavit, investigating officer Henry Kyalo had requested the court to allow him to detain the suspects for 14 days.

He said the two men were suspected of crimes relating to armed robberies and other serious offences between August and September.

"The nature of the offences requires further investigations, including an identification parade of the suspects at Central Police Station," said Mr Kyalo.

“There are also several witnesses and complainants who are yet to record their statements. We want to give them a chance to do so.”

The suspects presented themselves to the police through a human rights group, Muslim for Human Rights (Muhuri).

Khalef Khalifa, the Muhuri chairman, drove them to the DCI offices where they were questioned