By Shem Kosse
WHEN the New Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo was sworn in December last year to take over the reigns of police from the now retired Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere, he glaringly promised to revamp and accord the much discredited and loathed Kenya Police service:A new and emulative look which the country’s citizenry, can adore and revere.
The new IGP ,who competitively, scored highly in terms of marks during the interview proved it that he can really be fully in charge of the now both regular and Administration Police under one command.
To prove that he has really gotten down to task, heads have been sighted rolling and the issue of the much published police “impostor” Joshua Waiganjo has cropped up and now under thorough investigations to ascertain on how he really got into the security system,despite of the existence of the Kenya’s well oiled intelligence network,billed as one among the best,globally.
A lot still has to be done so as to help in unmasking some of the atrocities which were allegedly committed within the police service.
While the public still grappling with the issue of the fake police officer known as Waiganjo so as to ascertain the real truth about it on how he has operated within the service for close to five years unnoticed as fake one, a 46 years old man also claims that he was wrongfully dismissed from the police Service some 18 years ago after committing no crime.
Emmanuel Ochieng says the circumstance under which he and his colleague identified as Christopher Odero were shown the exit door still remain unclear to them when they were summarily dismissed from the then police force in April 1995 while another person identified as a Mr. Paul Oduor Imbaya then his fellow police constable is still working in the service and has since been promoted to an Inspector of Police despite being arrested and falsely imprisoned over their matter where they tried to investigate a case of suspected corruption at the Mombasa Port.
Ochieng who now resides in the sprawling Kibera Slums in Nairobi while doing only odd jobs at Building and Construction sites in Kitengela says what caused him and his Colleague their jobs is a case where they tried to investigate an alleged theft syndicate involving some senior police officers at the Mombasa Central Police station on April 5 1995.
The aggrieved x-police officer who gave his force number as 61797 claimed that it all started on April 6 1995 when he and his aforementioned colleague got information that a relief cargo worth thousands of shillings allegedly came out of the Mombasa Port and was later reportedly diverted into the local market by being stored at a secret ware house near shimanzi along Zanzibar Road in Mombasa.
“We were only acting on information we received and out of curiosity which we acted out of, I and my colleague known as Christopher Odero of Force number 60977 really received a baptism of fire from our fellow policemen when we tried to find out what was happening in a private warehouse belonging to a Somali businessman,” he said amid sobbing during a telephone interview with the Citizen Weekly.
He narrated on how they were immediately arrested and quickly driven out of the scene in a taxi to Mombasa Central Police Station where they were put into the police cells for two weeks while allegedly being tortured.
“After a few minutes while at the scene, we noticed a taxi coming to where we were and on approaching towards us, we realized that inside was a police inspector and a constable where we were arrested and turned into criminals being accused of demanding bribe to our astonishment ,” he added.
He says their mission at the said Private Ware house was only to demand from him a clearance documents from the port for the goods he was handling in his store, adding that the owner immediately started making phone calls via his cell phone only for a taxi carrying police officers to arrive at the scene.
According to him at the time of their arrests, another police constable a Mr. Paul Oduor Imbaya had also been arrested earlier after he too tried to carry out some investigation on the same matter being arrested at a secret store at the port being owned by a businessman of a Somali origin.
He said Oduor was arrested only to be released later under unclear circumstance after being assaulted and wrongfully confined in a police cell at the Mombasa Central Police Station.
Ochieng’ says after the incident Paul Oduor Imbaya who was then a police constable instituted a case against the then Mombasa Central Police Boss Godana Jarsa for alleged assault and wrongful confinement in 1995.
Godana Jarsa is now a retired Senior Superintendent of Police {SSP} after Serving in that Capacity in Nyanza and other regions.
He adds that the court in Mombasa later in 2004 granted him a chance to join in Oduor’s case where he sought to be reinstated to his job while claiming that he was wrongfully dismissed.
But he says what is so disturbing is the snail pace at which the case has taken nearly 18 years since the incident happened and almost ten years since the matter was taken to court.
He appeals to the Chief Justice Dr. Willy Mutunga to intervene and help him and his colleagues get justice even though it has been delayed for a long time.
Ochieng’ further send his passionate appeal to the New Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo to kindly take up this matter and order thorough investigations again so as the truth about it be known once and for all and to allow him be reinstated to his job as a police officer, adding that his colleague Imbaya is still working and has now been promoted to the rank of an Inspector of Police asking why not he was dismissed in the first place.
“Some of my colleagues whom we passed out with from Kiganjo Police Training College in 1991 like Francis Ndegwa Muhoro who also happened to be working at Kilindini Port Police at the time of the incident is now the current Director of CID and may become the Deputy Inspector General of Police if approved by Parliament but me someone somewhere insisted that I must be dismissed from my job after committing no crime at all,” he concludes.tearfully.
ENDS:
– Shem Kosse –