During the anti-government protests last month, two arresting police officers, according to majority leader Peter Imwatok, were accused of taking USD2 million (Sh300 million).
Imwatok, a Makongeni MCA and senior principal magistrate in Milimani, informed Robison Ondieki on Wednesday that he lost the millions to two officials on July 21, 2023.
A hotel employee who witnessed the incident, he claimed to the court, strangely passed away two days after the arrest.
Shadrack Wambui was the attorney for Imwatok.
“Two police officers attached to DCI Headquarters serious Crime unit stole USD 2 million belonging to Makongeni MCA Peter Imwatok from a safe at Radisson Blu Hotel Nairobi,”
Wambui testified before the court that a hotel employee who had since been slain strangely had helped the two police officers steal the money from the safe.
Imwatok, along with Makadara MP George Aladwa and Kilimani MCA Moses Ogeto Nyangaresi, had fled into hiding after learning that police were pursuing them in order to detain them for allegedly engaging in subversive activity during the Azimio demonstrations.
When the two officers apprehended Imwatok from his hiding place at a hotel in Nairobi, Wambui reported to Magistrate Ondieki that money had been stolen.
In court on July 21, 2023, Wambui had requested that the two cops deliver the goods they had taken from Imwatok.
The magistrate had mandated that the two officers appear before him on Tuesday.
The officers, however, did not show up, but Gilbert Okemwa, the investigating officer, did. He showed up in court with two phones but not the USD 2 million.
Okemwa was obliged by the court to testify in order to provide information regarding the whereabouts of the two officers and the disputed funds.
Okemwa informed the magistrate that the two people who had Imwatok detained had not paid him any money.
“I confirm the only thing that is in the inventory is only the phones and nothing else. The USD 2 million was not handed to me by the two arresting officers,”
The cop did not, however, reveal the whereabouts of his two coworkers or the reason they did not comply with the court summons by appearing in court yesterday.
After Okemwa stated that the money is not an exhibit in the subversion case, Wambui encouraged the magistrate to stand his ground and order the two to return the USD 2 million they stole from Imwatok.
The defense attorney informed the jury that police have a well-known propensity for robbing suspects of their valuable possessions and money.
“This habit of police must be stopped by this honour court. Order the two officers to return Imwatok’s money or face prosecution,”
Imwatok was taken into custody by the police after Justice Diana Kavedza prohibited Aladwa, Ogeto, and other suspects from being taken into custody alongside him.
The three were given Ksh 100,000 in anticipatory bail while an investigation and subsequent prosecution took place.
Imwatok was detained by the police despite the High Court’s injunction being in effect, and he was charged with subversion with Mathare MP Anthony Oluoch.
Paul Ongili Owino, also known as Babu Owino, and Calvin Okoth, also known as Gaucho, both representatives for the Embakasi East constituency, were also detained and have been prosecuted in court in relation to the demonstration and the accompanying violence.
The magistrate instructed Imwatok to file a lawsuit in the High Court to recover the millions that were stolen.
September 13 will see the case heard.