Muthaiga Police Station OCS, Alphonse Kimengua, has been suspended for alleged negligence, Nairobi Regional Police Commander, Philip Ndolo, confirmed to K24 Digital on Friday.
Kimengua was debarred from duty for allegedly failing to explain how visitors of detained Jubilee digital strategist, Dennis Itumbi, managed to take pictures within the protected area.
In Kenya, police stations are among the few locations regarded as prohibited areas.
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Taking photographs or videos at the prohibited areas is outlawed, former Inspector General of Police, Joseph Boinnet, reiterated in a March 2016 interview with the Daily Nation.
The pictures, which have landed Muthaiga station senior cop, Kimengua, in trouble are those of Itumbi, his brother David, journalist Jacque Maribe and politician Josiah Murigu.
In some of the now-viral pictures, the four are seen posing for a selfie with broad smiles on their faces.
Several of those pictures found their way to social media.
“I have always, and will always stand with you, bro [Itumbi]. Tumetoka mbali, tunaenda far. [I am] with Dennis Itumbi at [the] Muthaiga Police Station waiting for the said-charged kesho,” read politician Josiah Murigu’s Facebook post on Wednesday, in which he attached a selfie photo of himself, with Itumbi seen on the background speaking on phone, and Maribe scrolling her smartphone’s screen.
Confirming Kimengua’s suspension to K24 Digital, Nairobi police boss, Philip Ndolo, said: “The OCS was suspended by his senior for negligence. When a high-ranking law enforcement officer allows an illegality be conducted under his watch, it is only right he or she be suspended as investigations into the said-negligence continue. Kimengua’s direct boss informed me that he has interdicted the OCS, and I okayed his decision.”
Dennis Itumbi is being held at the Muthaiga Police Station after his arrest Wednesday.
The blogger-turned-digital strategist is being accused of authoring and circulating a fake letter, which alleged that there is an active plot by four Cabinet ministers to kill Deputy President William Ruto.
Itumbi was arraigned at the Milimani Law Courts on Thursday, July 4, where Senior Resident Magistrate, Zainab Abdul, directed that the controversial online figure be detained at the Muthaiga police post for five days as the prosecution collect evidence to firm up their case against the accused.
Itumbi, who did not take plea, successfully objected the prosecution’s request that he be locked up at Kamukunji Police Station.
Itumbi said the State wanted to expose him to torture, which would be meted out by “hard-core criminals”, who “are kept at the Kamukunji station cells”.
Itumbi was arrested on Wednesday, July 3, at Charlies Bistro restaurant in Nairobi CBD.
He spent Wednesday night at Muthaiga police post.
