BY SAM ALFAN.
Nine members of disbanded Special Service Unit (SSU) will oppose any application to further detain them after failing to get blood samples as directed by the court.
The court had directed that the SSU officers be presented at the national lab to give blood samples fo analysis in the presence of their personal pathologist.
The officers are apprehensive that the investigators might come up with some mischief by secretly presenting them in another lab other than the national forensic lab at the DCI headquarters in the absence of their dully appointed forensic scientist.
Through their lawyer Danstan Omari, the officers complained to the DPP that orders issued by Kahawa law court Magistrate Diana Mochache has not been adhered to.
In a letter to the Director of Public Prosecution Noordin Haji, the police officers said they will oppose any plans to detain them further.
“We shall be vehemently opposing to any application to extend the time beyond the twenty one (21) days that were granted to you on the 1st December 2022 when the matter shall be coming for mention,” says the officers lawyer.
The court had ordered the officers to give their blood samples to enable the investigators compare their DNA with the blood on the exhibits in their custody.
“By a copy of this letter, we wish to relay our clients’ disgruntlement that they shall be vehemently objecting to being presented in any other laboratory other than as ordered by the court,” the lawyers stated in the letter.
Omari said that the officers have already appointed their pathologist who will be present during DNA collection as ordered by the court in order to safeguard the integrity of the process.
The court granted the investigators the orders on 10th November 2022, which shall lapse on 1st December 2022.
The matter will be mentioned on December 1, 2022 when the days granted will elapse.
According to investigators, they required 21 days to collect and analyze DNA samples of the suspects, a time during which they were to remain incarcerated.
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.
