Law

The Kenya police Service needs a serious institutional & statutory radical surgery. On Thursday,the 15TH of March, 2018, at around 2:30 PM or thereabout, I received a call asking me to appear at Hardy Police Station, Karen.
I told the caller, who just introduced herself as Emmy that I would make it at around 5 PM given my other engagement elsewhere.So at around 6 PM I checked-in,and after the brief introduction with a lady at the front desk, who actually confirmed having called me, she asked me to wait in the adjacent office as I would be attended to.
All this time, I was under arrest without being informed  as  the law so establish.Being a professional Lawyer & having interacted with the Kenya Police before, I noticed that these cops had locked me in.Thirty minutes down the line,nobody told me why I was there,but different riffle wielding officers kept on coming to this unlabeled squeezed office where I was apparently caged.
Finally Emmy came & after a casual greeting, asked me,"mbona ukavunja simu ya wenyewe?". Then I responded, I did not break anybody's phone.She brandished a smashed phone & asked me..."do u know the owner of this phone",I responded no,I don't know.You cannot ascertain ownership of any property by a mere glance at it.She then faked laughter & said,"acha hizo ownership za sheria,nakuliza kama umejua mwenye hii simu?",I repeated my answer more clearly,coherently,firmly & with confidence.
"So, do you know Maureen?",she asked. I responded with a question too, which Maureen..?
"The one seated over there"..she said.Yes I know her, I answered.
Excuse me by the way, who am I speaking to? You did not introduce yourself.I asked."I am Emmy", she responded.So why am I here? I asked her.She did not respond.All this while,a couple of Police Officers kept on walking inside this room wielding AK 47 & G3 rifles.Then Emmy said to one of them in Kalenjin dialect, that "he capitalised on the ignorance of this lady & destroyed her phone.We shall have him booked in,hivyo ndivyo OCS amesema".I maintained my calmness.Then another dark-skinned mean looking constable came & said,"malizana na huyu mabusu wangu alafu nimweke ndani".Emmy left the room & while she was away,another male police constable came & asked me,"mbona unakaa comfortable hivi?".Then I said,madam(read Emmy) just left me here so I have to be comfortable.
When Emmy came back, I demanded to know exactly why I was there. Instead, she responded to her colleague that,"huyu ameletwa hapa kwa sababu ya malicious damage of property.File yake iko tayari na Musyoka,atalala ndani ili apelekwe court kesho".So I decided to help them & narrated my side of the story & brought to their attention the basics of criminal law & Kenyan justice system,because I felt either they did not know or they knew,but they were hell-bent at fixing me with pre-determined attitude & cooked up charges.
So I referred to section 339(1) of the Penal Code, Cap 63 Laws of Kenya & explained why they were questioning the wrong person.It's that section where they tried lifting an offense to be preferred against me as a charge.Though they did not know it's in the Penal Code & neither did they know that section.It's understandable, they are not Lawyers.
I was so baffled because, that alleged offense was reported at around 12:30 noon & without the complainant recording statement & bringing forth her witnesses to do the same,in the eyes of the Police, I was already an offender, not even a suspect.It's illegal to apprehend someone in regards to such a misdemeanor, if the investigations either have not commenced or are inconclusive.
In the absence of recorded statements from the complainant & her would be witnesses, then it implies the Investigating Officer was still doing his job.Anyway,it turned out that I had physically assaulted this same lady,several weeks back,at least according to the Police & that all this was reported on that Thursday.So the lady had not reported this initially, it had not been entered in the occurrence book,there was no OB no.to that effect,the lady had not taken a P3 form, the police had not filled it & the medical officer in the rank of a Clinical Officer had not treated the lady& entered his/her comments, which could either be vindictive or indictive. So Emmy concluded that it is normal to hit a lady & that was the only ground she relied on to believe the allegations."Hitting a lady is normal", she said
When Mr.Musyoka walked in, they were busy consulting & Emmy insisted that I be locked in.So she asked me to narrate my side of the story to Mr.Musyoka who apparently was the Investigating Officer.I again wondered why she had been interrogating me if she was not the investigating officer.Mr.Musyoka had concluded that I'll be led into a cell.I was finally led into the cell, but after a lot of struggle(push & pull/back & forth altracations) with one of the officers, as he was basically interested in manhandling me.He forcefully confiscated my phone to deny the chance to communicate with my family members,professional colleagues,friends & Advocates on the same.By the time I was led into the cell, I had texted six Advocates.
The first to come to my rescue was Advocate Miss Adala, whose call made them to freak out.I also thank Advocate Cliffe Ombeta who responded promptly despite being in Mombasa.Advocate Miss Venice Kore,Advocate Peter Mutisya,Lawyers Oscar Onyango & Ericko Mageta all these made an effort to get me out of that mess.
I also thank Project Planning & Management Consultant & Nyanza/Western Kenya only Female Football Referee,Miss Beryl Adhiambo Okwach,University of Nairobi based Statistician & Acturial Scientist,Mr.Steve,Platinum Crdit Sales Executive Cornel Conel Otieno Ondiek & Building Constructor,Jaber Nyaugenya.These great ladies & gentle men showed some concern.
So inside the cell,I knelt down & started singing gospel/praise & worship songs,& Emmy, in tow with Mr.Musyoka came to get me out, with Emmy asking me,"Victor kuja na uwache  madowido".They released me after about ten minutes in cell.It turned out that they planned to lock me in till the following week Monday(yesterday) because they were still fishing for witnesses.The complainant later recorded a couched statement at 9 PM that Thursday,after I had been released & asked to report back on Friday, which I did not do.The complainant had to withdraw her case on Saturday at around 2PM.
Moral of the story: I wonder what other Kenyans who may not know thier rights undergo in the hands of the Police, if they could do this to somebody they reckoned to be a member of the legal profession.