Ex-Mungiki Leader Maina Njenga Set Free
Earlier, police used teargas to disperse the supporters who tried to gain entry to DCI HQ while chanting loud slogans
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UPDATE: Former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga has been set free after being whisked away from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters along Kiambu Road by police to an undisclosed location.
Njenga was released on a free bond after he presented himself to DCI headquarters earlier on Thursday, May 25. According to reports, the police released the ex-Mungiki leader after being driven around the city by the police.
"All is well that ends well Maina Njenga is a free man to present himself to court on Monday," Azimio la Umoja principal, Martha Karua, tweeted in part, thanking the DCI, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) and human rights groups.
Azimio la Umoja principal, Martha Karua, led a section of fellow principals in alleging that former Mungiki leader, Maina Njenga, was whisked away by detectives drawn from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters along Kiambu Road.
Karua, in a statement via Twitter on Thursday, May 25 claimed that the DCI silently moved him away from the highly-protected facility to an undetermined location.
She further accused the investigative agency of violating Njenga's rights to be represented legally in a court of law.
“Thuggery Alert! DCI officers this afternoon demonstrated thuggery instead of professionalism by using trickery to separate Maina Njenga from his lawyers who included several Azimio principals and sneaking him out of DCI offices Kiambu Road to an undisclosed destination.
Police fire teargas at supporters who accompanied ex-Mungiki leader Maina Njenga who was being interrogated by the DCI on May 25, 2023. /VIRALTEAKE
"DCI is violating Maina Njenga’s right to legal representation and we fear they will prejudice his rights to a fair trial. In these circumstances is his safety assured," she wrote.
On his part, Democratic Action Party - Kenya (DAP-K) party leader, Eugene Wamalwa, while speaking to the press, revealed that Njenga was in the company of six lawyers, as well as himself and other top politicians including George Wajackoyah when he presented himself at the DCI headquarters.
"While asking why he had been summoned here, the DCI said there were fresh charges that were to be preferred against Maina Njenga. They have just charged him afresh and as they were charging him, we were insisting that he be accompanied by his lawyers to court.
"Unfortunately they were able to sneak in and sneak our client out of the room where we were. As we speak, we are told he is being taken to Nakuru Courts, we have also been told that they are heading towards Kiambu Courts in a very clandestine manner," he addressed.
Maina's lawyer, Ndegwa Njiru, on his part, questioned why his client spent hours at the premises and was yet to record a statement, adding that the police did not communicate with Njenga's legal team and drove him away to an unknown destination.
The lawyer suspected that the DCI detectives had taken him to Kiambu as he instructed his driver to trail the motorcade that had left minutes earlier.
"They have seized my client. We don't know where he has gone. We have been sitting there all day they did not speak to us. Also, he has not recorded any statement thus far.
"Right now we're heading to Kiambu as we suspect they have headed there," he stated.
Images seen by Viral Tea showed a convoy of Subaru vehicles leaving the DCI headquarters to an unknown destination, leaving behind a crowd of supporters who trooped to the premises in support of Njenga.
Earlier, police used teargas to disperse the supporters who tried to gain entry to DCI HQ while chanting loud slogans. Afterwards, there was increased security as more police officers were deployed to the area to dispatch the impatient followers.
Reports indicated that a section of Kiambu Road, which connects to the busy Thika Superhighway had been closed.
Other than Karua, Wamalwa and Wajackoyah, other politicians who accompanied Maina Njenga to DCI HQ included Murang’a Governor Mwangi wa Iria and former Ndaragwa Member of Parliament (MP) Jeremiah Kioni.
Njenga appeared at the Nakuru Law Courts on the same day and was directed to appear at DCI the following day after he was set free in line with the anticipatory bail of Ksh100,000 he had posted on May 18, 2023.
The DCI had stated that Njenga was being sought after in relation to the recovery of two firearms and over 90 rolls of bhang, found at a home linked to him.
