Two police officers convicted for receiving a bribe of Sh200,000 and obstructing officers from the anti-graft agency from arresting their colleagues will be sentenced on November 24, 2023.
The convicts were however cleared of an offence of demanding a bribe of Sh1 million from a Chinese investor namely Pan Xido Yan.
The Chinese had reportedly been asked by the law enforcers to take the bribe money to Kabete Police Station from where they would collect it.
“But it was never to be,” Mr Nzioki stated anti-corruption court chief magistrate Thomas Nzioko in his judgment, which saw a former Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officer Cpl Julius Onyango Oguma, and Police Constable Charles Macharia Wanjiru nabbed.
Onyango Oguma and Wanjiru have been remanded at the Industrial Prison as they prepare for their mitigations.
But as Oguma and Wanjiru were being handcuffed and escorted to prison, two other police officers Samuel Yunah Kukhuvillo and Joseph Kigara Gatheca were acquitted.
All four police officers were acquitted of an offence of demanding a bribe of Sh1 million from a Chinese Pan Xido Yan to forebear charging another investor Mr Gong Huan with an offence of being in Kenya without valid documentation.
Police Constable Gatheca cried and sobbed after Mr Nzioki declared he was innocent.
“Walk out of the dock. You are free now,” Mr Nzioki told Gatheca and Yunah.
Gatheca staggered mid-way and then sat at the public gallery where he began to cry. He sneezed and sobbed forcing his relatives to escort him out of the courtroom.
Later his relative told Nairobi News, “We are all happy with the verdict. Gatheca could not believe he was free. He has suffered for the last five years.”
As Gatheca and Kukhuvilo began their freedom, defence lawyer Njenga Kiarie urged Mr Nzioki to give the convicts time “to recover from the shock of conviction and to consolidate and compose their thoughts before they tender their mitigations.”
“I urge this court to indulge me to get instructions on the mitigating factors and also present medical reports of the convicts,” Mr Kiarie prayed.
Mr Nzioki allowed Mr Kiarie’s plea and directed the convicts be remanded until November 29, 2023.
Mr Nzioki found Mr Oguma guilty of receiving a bribe of Sh200,000 from an Ethics and Anti Corruption Commision (EACC) officer namely Ms Jane Wangu at the Kabete Police Station on November 28, 2018.
And PC Wanjiru was convicted for the offence of obstructing EACC officers James Wachira, Martin Mbuvi. Philip Major and Alex Nyakundi from arresting four police officers over graft.
PC Wanjiru was also convicted of aiding Cpl Oguma to escape from lawful custody.
In his judgment Mr Nzioki said PC Wanjiru fired in the air as CPL Oguma escaped in a car after receiving the bribe of Sh200,000.
“PC Wanjiru used the firearm given to him to scare EACC officers from arresting his colleague CPL Oguma,” Mr Nzioki ruled.
The magistrate said although PC Wanjiru used the firearm to protect his colleague that does not amount to a capital offence.
He proceeded to clear the former law enforcer of the offence of robbery with violence.
Wanjiru had been charged with violently robbing Philip Major of the EACC a Sh7,000 and a wallet.
