Probe team queries handling of police uniforms, insignia
Commission chairperson Mary Owuor (left) and Major Muiu member of the probe team appointed to investigate how Joshua Waiganjo managed to pass off as a senior police officer attached to Rift Valley Province for five years during a three-day public hearing in Nakuru on January 22, 2013. Photo/Suleiman Mbatiah
What you need to know:
The commission was told that Mr Waiganjo’s records were neither with the directorate of personnel management at the Police headquarters, the Rift Valley provincial offices nor the central stores where records for officers issued with any materials, including uniforms are kept.
Procurement and distribution of police equipment, including uniforms, came under sharp focus Thursday as top commanders distanced themselves from activities of “fake” officer Joshua Waiganjo.
A six member commission investigating how Mr Waiganjo managed to pass off as a senior police officer attached to Rift Valley Province for five years raised questions regarding the procurement of police uniforms.
The commission chairperson, Ms Mary Awuor, said from the testimony so far adduced, “it is clear that there may be uniforms and police ranks that are procured from other sources”.
“It appears that somebody somewhere is making police uniforms and insignia,” said Ms Awour while questioning Mr Peter Ndung’u, the senior superintendent of police in charge of central stores based in Nairobi’s Industrial Area.
Mr Ndung’u denied that Mr Waiganjo was issued with police uniforms and ranks.
“I am 100 per cent sure that from October last year, when I took over the central stores in an acting capacity, Mr Waiganjo has not been issued with any of our uniforms,” said Mr Ndung’u who was the 25th witness to testify Thursday.
The commission, which is holding its last sitting in Nairobi Friday at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, was told that Mr Waiganjo’s records were neither with the directorate of personnel management at the Police headquarters, the Rift Valley provincial offices nor the central stores where records for officers issued with any materials, including uniforms are kept.
Former Rift Valley PPO Francis Munyambu dismissed Mr Waiganjo as “a criminal,” saying he had not met him during his four-year tenure from his posting to the province in July 2009 until August 2012 when he was redeployed to police headquarters.
“As far as I am concerned and in my own opinion, Mr Waiganjo is not a police officer. I tend to think he is just a criminal. I never handed him over to Mr John M’Mbijiwe as claimed,” said Munyambu.
The inquiry was also told of how Mr Waiganjo and a Mr Maina irregularly flew in a police helicopter and attended a strategy meeting in Baragoi that may have resulted in the killing of 42 police officers in a botched operation.
Police Air Wing commandant Rodgers Munene and the director of police reforms Jonathan Kosgey confirmed that Mr Waiganjo was among the “strategists” of the botched Baragoi operation.
Mr Kosgey, who led investigations into the killings, said the alleged impostor may have “been involved in the leaking of information to enemies who ambushed the officers.”
