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Police impostor has medical condition, probe team told

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Joshua Waiganjo who posed as an Assistant Police Commissioner. Photo/FILE

Police impostor Joshua Waiganjo has a medical condition that requires daily administration of drugs, the commission investigating his operations heard Wednesday.

A police clinical officer attached at the Anti-Stock Theft Unit (ASTU) headquarters in Gilgil, Inspector Zacchaeus Kotut told the commission that Mr Waiganjo was taken to the camp's dispensary by suspended ASTU Commandant Remy Ngugi for treatment.

“My boss came into the dispensary on June 23 last year at about 10:00am accompanied by Mr Waiganjo, introduced him to me as a friend and told me to help him because he was sick and needed medical attention,” said the witness.

Mr Kotut told the commission sitting in Nakuru that he took Mr Waiganjo’s medical history before sending him to the lab where samples of his blood were taken.

He added that on reading the results, he discovered that Mr Waiganjo needed advanced treatment from a doctor and referred him to a private medical practitioner within Nakuru town for further review.

The clinical officer said Mr Waiganjo returned to the clinic at ASTU Gilgil four days later for a check-up and that he was required to start on a daily medical administration for a condition he was suffering from.

“He was advised to come back to me so that I could show him how to administer the drugs and at times I could go to his house in Gilgil township to administer the medicines,” he testified.

Mr Kotut said he was also required to show Mr Waiganjo’s fiancé Ms Fozzie Ayolo who is also an ASTU police constable based in Gilgil how to administer the drugs.

He told the commission that although Mr Waiganjo had never been introduced to him as an officer, there were picture portraits in his house of Mr Waiganjo in different police uniforms of various ranks ranging from a Senior Superintendent of Police to Assistant Police Commissioner.

“I later saw Mr Waiganjo in full police uniform of the rank of an Assistant Commissioner of Police and in a GK vehicle passing by the camp gate because he was a frequent visitor to the unit where he would visit the ASTU Commandant and he told me to recommend him to have a gate pass,” he said.

Mr Kotut said he promised to look into the matter but he did nothing because he was not supposed to take orders from officers of a different formation regardless of Mr Waiganjo’s position.

ASTU Commandant’s driver, Corporal Joel Mopen narrated to the commission how he was ordered to pick Mr Waiganjo from his home by the suspended ASTU Commandant Mr Ngugi and take him to a clinic in Nakuru and back with the commandant’s official vehicle.

He said on another occasion the ASTU commandant ordered him to pick Mr Waiganjo from Gilgil town and take him to the Rift Valley Provincial Police headquarters where Mr Waiganjo spent three hours with suspended Rift Valley Provincial police boss John M’Mbijiwe.

“I stayed in the car for three hours waiting for him to finish his business, he was later escorted by Mr M’Mbijiwe to the car and I drove him back to his house in Gilgil,” said Mr Mopen.

He said on a second incident he found Mr Waiganjo dressed in police uniform of the rank of an ACP and he (Waiganjo) asked him in Swahili "unaona mimi ni mkubwa wa polisi?" (you see I am a senior police officer?).

He said on both occasions, it was Commandant Ngugi who was signed the work tickets thus authorising the journeys.

The 19th witness before the commission, a former Officer Commanding Kirengero Police Station, Chief Inspector Julius Kyalo Kalinda told of how he was called to Kabazi by the public to arrest a person who was claiming to be the Officer Commanding Tana Delta Police Division.

“The residents told me although the man was claiming to be OCPD Tana Delta, he looked like a fake and was misbehaving,” he added.

Mr Kalinda said on getting to the hotel where the man was said to be, he and his officers discovered that he had disappeared through back route.

“I went to his room thinking that he would be there but all I found was a licence belonging to Joshua Waiganjo and valuation and sale agreement belonging to Lakers Auto-Spares and a vehicle insurance sticker,” he said.

He said within a short span of Mr Waiganjo being spotted and fleeing Kabazi, four stolen vehicles, three of them lorries were discovered in the area.
“When he fled, he left a saloon car packed in the hotel parking lot which we towed to Kirengero police station and after reporting the incident to the headquarters, we discovered that the car had been stolen from Kisumu,” he testified.

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