BY IRENE ONYANGO.
Three people linked to the Embakasi gas station in which 11 people were killed in a blast last month will remain in custody pending the conclusion of investigations.
Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Gilbert Shikwe has ordered Josephat Muia Manyolo, Oliver Mumo Munuve and Austin Lilechi to be held at Capital Hill Police station for a day pending a ruling.
The DCI Regional Criminal Investigation Officer Isaac Kariuki sought to detain the trio at Embakasi Police Station for 14 days to allow him complete investigations.
The officer said the suspects are likely to be charged with murder, conspiracy to commit a felony among others and that he was at the tail end of the probe before forwarding the file to the Director of Public Prosecutions for directions.
Kariuki who approached the court under miscellaneous application said the three are believed to be directly involved in the Maxxis Energy explosion tragedy.
The officer told the Court that Manyolo had driven the track that had transported the LPG Gas from Mombasa to the scene.
Munuve, he said, was an electrician who was doing electrical works at the scene as well as assisting with equipment relating to gas refiling and Lilechi is suspected to be the landlord who rented his facility out to the main suspect hence are of interest in the ongoing investigations.
He further told the court that if the three would probably disappear if released on a cash bail since they had gone into hiding immediately after the incident occurred and were only arrested on 29th February.
The officer is led to believe that the Embakasi Explosion that occured on the night of 1st February was somehow related to the trio since they all play a part in something that went wrong at the refilling station.
The defense however while Opposing the application insinuated that the continous detention of the suspects is as a result of ill motive from the Police since there was no compelling reasons as to why their clients were to be detained when investigations had commenced a month ago and is still ongoing.
The lawyer submitted that the investigating officer violated the suspects’ constitutional rights by not bringing them to court within 24 hours.
