BY SAM ALFAN.
Several police officers from the disbanded Special Service Unit (SSU) who have been arrested over claims various crimes have claimed their persecution is politically instigated.
While opposing an application to detain them for 30 days as the police conduct investigation, the officers further accused President William Ruto of interfering with the work of the National police Service, an independent office.
Through their lawyer Danstan Omari, the officers who are currently in detention said it was unfortunate for President Ruto to direct the NPS to investigate the abduction of two Indians during Musahujaa Day celebrations.
Lawyer Omari says the NPS is an independent office that is only subject to directions from the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The officers said the utterances by the court of public opinion and including the President from depict them as killers.
Meanwhile, a driver attached to disbanded unit has denied being the driver of the Subaru allegedly to have been used to intercept the two Indian and their taxi driver, never to be seen alive again.
Police officers Peter Gachiku, Francis Ndonye,John Kamau and Joseph Mbugua have denied the allegations that they were involved in the abduction of two Indians and their taxi driver.
Ndonye says the day the two are alleged to have been abducted by the officers of the said unit, he was off duty and was visiting his family in Makindu.
The former SSU officers denies claims that he was involved in any operation concerning planning and execution of abduction.
They have denied ever working in cahoots with any serving police officer and person in any other security agency and therefore not in position to interfere with ongoing investigations.
They are questioning why it’s only officers of Director of Criminal Investigations who are being investigated while multi-agency operations include Inspector General, Attorney General, National Intelligence Services, Kenya Wild life, Kenya Prisons among others.
The officers further want to be allowed to cross-examine the investigating officer- Wilhelm Kibet over claims contained in his affidavit filed in court.
They claim the bulk of contents in the affidavit are sensational and appears to be motivated by orders from high ranks in the government.
The DCI officers opposes the move by the Investigating officer seeking for his DNA sample for profiling adding that there is likelihood of his DNA to be planted on the alleged recovered items so as to yield the intended results.
They adds that the Investigating officer has not indicated with certainty which items they are intending to compare the DNA samples with.
“In the alternative and without prejudicing the objection to the DNA test being carried out, the test should be carried out at a government chemist and I should be present during the whole process up to matching of the samples,” says the officers.
They adds that the Investigating officer confiscated his phone unlawfully and handled it and he should not use the court to sanitize his irregularities.
