Firearms board disowns police raid at Jomo's home

Uhuru Kenyatta’s son John Jomo Kenyatta. [File, Standard]

The mystery surrounding the raid of the home of former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s son deepened after the Firearms Licensing Board denied being involved.

 In its reply seen by The Standard, the board on Wednesday argued that it was neither interested in cancelling John Jomo Kenyatta’s gun licenses nor was it aware of the raid.

The board’s chair Rashid Yakub said he never sent police officers to Jomo’s home.

Further, he stated that he never asked police officers to order Jomo to surrender the guns he had.

 The senior officer said that he was a stranger to the July 21 drama adding that the board has never written any demand or orally directed that President Uhuru’s son’s license should be cancelled.

“I am a stranger to the happenings of July 21, 2023, and confirm that I did not instruct any police officers to raid the Applicant’s residence and the request by the so-called police officers to surrender his firearms and license is alien to me.

I confirm that the board has neither cancelled the applicant’s license nor impounded his firearms and the board does not intend to cancel his firearm license,” said Yakub.

At the same time, Attorney General Justin Muturi opposed the application filed by Jomo’s lawyer Fred Ngatia.

State lawyer Munene Wanjohi argued that the case was an abuse of the court process as the State does not intend to cancel Jomo’s licenses or confiscate his guns.

In his submissions, Jomo asserted that despite the denial by the board and the government, armed police officers raided his home and demanded that he surrender the firearms and his license.

Jomo said that he is sure that the persons who were at his 104 Windy Ridge house were members of the National Police Service.

“The first and second respondents (board and the AG) contend in their grounds of opposition that the applicant’s firearm license certificate has not been cancelled. The armed police officers’ singular purpose was to confiscate the applicant’s firearms. given that situation, the orders sought are merited,” said Jomo.

 According to Ngatia, the police’s actions are meant to attract publicity, which he says may be detrimental to his client’s safety. The case will be heard on December 5, this year.