Policeman: I was fired for being close to former President Mwai Kibaki

Former Mwai Kibaki Bodyguard David Wambugu complain of neglect. Dec 2, 2016. [PHOTO: JONAH ONYANGO/STANDARD]

Former President Mwai Kibaki’s bodyguard is accusing a senior police officer of edging him out of work due to his close relationship with his former boss.

David Wambugu, then a General Service Unit officer, was in the same car as the former president on December 3, 2002 when they were involved in a car crash while returning to Nairobi after a campaign tour of Machakos. After Mr Kibaki became president, Mr Wambugu claims that he volunteered to pay his Nairobi Hospital bill via a State House account.

According to Mr Wambugu’s court papers filed before the Employment and Labour Relations Court, the goodwill by the President took an ugly trajectory after one of his bosses got wind of it.

Wambugu says that he was forced to take early retirement.

“Due to the close relationship and trust that the former President had in the petitioner, he offered to personally settle the medical bills of the petitioner through a State House account known as State House recurrent account. This was a personal commitment from the former president and so this means that the petitioner had direct contact with him,” the court papers say.

Wambugu claims that police boss King’ori Mwangi got furious with the fact that he was being helped by the president, and forced him to sign an early retirement letter with threats over his life.

“Upon learning the direct contact that the petitioner had with the former president and the clearance of the petitioner’s medical bills the second respondent (Mwangi) was enraged and claimed that the petitioner was extorting money from State House without following protocol,”  according to court papers filed by RA Onchuru and Company advocates.

await dismissal

Mwangi, on the other hand, claimed that Wambugu lost a gun under mysterious circumstances.

But Wambugu says the claim by his former boss is untrue.

He claims that on January 20, 2005, at 4pm, he was picked from his house in Highridge and taken to Mwangi’s office where he was questioned about an envelope containing a medical bill which he had given to a colleague to take to the former president’s secretary.

At the end of the meeting, Mwangi allegedly told him to await his dismissal.

He allegedly then sought help from the former police commissioner Hussein Ali who promised to look into the matter.

“The commissioner promised to look into it later but never did,” Wambugu claims.

The National Police Service Commission allegedly also turned a deaf ear on him.

Wambugu says that his rights were violated and the decision ought to be quashed.

“The first (National Police Service Commission) and second (Mwangi) respondents did not give reasons for forced early retirement of the petitioner. The petitioner was presented with an early retirement letter contrary to his wishes and in breach of his human rights,” the court papers continue.

“The petitioner was told that if he did not sign he would not be safe as far as his life was concerned.”

The bodyguard has sued the Attorney General, National Police Service and Mwangi. He is seeking to be reinstated as a police officer.