Former Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i. PHOTO | EVANS HABIL
The saga over the alleged invasion of former Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i’s residence deepened on Wednesday evening after a contingent of police officers broke into his Karen home.
Police have raided Dr Fred Matiang’i’s home moments after the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) boss Amin Mohamed said they had a search order to obtain CCTV recordings.
The DCI said they are seeking to establish facts surrounding alleged police raid at Dr Matiang’i’ home last Thursday.
“Upon completing our investigation, we will take action if any officers from any security agency were involved in any unauthorized activities, or if any false information was knowingly disseminated by anyone to the public,” DCI said in a statement.
The DCI has also said it is committed to conducting impartial investigations and upholding the rule of law.
However, Dr Matiang’i was not at his residence during the 4pm incident.
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“Matiang’i was not home when police officer broke in. They bundled me into the boot of one of their cars and detained me for than one hour,” a security guard at the residence told Nairobi News.
Lawyers Danstan Omari and Sam Nyaberi said the police drove through the steel gate of Dr Matiang’i’s residence.
“Police have broken into every room in Dr Matiang’i’s residence. We cannot allow Journalists into the privacy of the house,” Mr Omari told the media at the home.
While Mr Omari and Mr Nyaberi said the police had not obtained court orders to conduct the search, the latter insisted that they obtained the orders from a Kiambu Court.
A DCI detective privy to the matter told Nairobi News on phone that she personally obtained the orders to gain entry into Dr Matiang’i’s residence.
“I got the orders from a Kiambu Court to review the CCTV camera footage of February 9, 2023,” the detective said.
Earlier on, the DCI had made three attempts to access CCTV footage from Dr Matiang’i’s residence to establish whether the police raided the home on the night of February 9, 2023.
But magistrates in Kiambu and Milimani Law Courts declined to grant orders compelling Bob Morgan Security Services Limited to allow them extract video footages from the CCTV cameras mounted on the road leading to Dr Matiang’i’s home.
“I have perused the application by the DCI seeking orders to allow cybercrime officers view the CCTV footage. The application is scanty and I hereby direct police do serve the application on BM Security for inter-parte hearing on March 7, 2023,” Milimani Law Courts Senior Principal Magistrate Wandia Nyamu ruled.
The magistrate also allowed Dr Matiang’i’s lawyers, led by Omari, Nyaberi and Shadrack Wamboi, to apply to be furnished with the DCI application to protect the client’s rights.
Mr Omari told the magistrate that they are apprehensive police are trying to gain private access to the CCTV footage.
The DCI has disputed claims that the police were involved in the said raid, while maintaining that the National Police Service did not sanction the same, making it necessary for them to access the CCTV footage.
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