Matiang'i Raid: DCI Warn Danstan Omari Against Missing Summons

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has warned former Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i’s lawyer Danstan Omari against failing to adhere to summons to appear at the DCI headquarters along Kiambu Road.

DCI detective Micheal Sang directed the lawyer to appear before the detectives on Wednesday, February 22 at 9.30 am.

The purpose of the summons is for Omari to furnish the DCI with any information that may be of help to the detectives in ongoing investigations on the raid at Matiang'i's Karen home, which happened on two occasions in the span of one week.

Lawyer Dunstan Omari at ex-CS Fred Matiang'i's home on February 15, 2023. /CITIZEN TV

"I have reasons to believe that you, Danstan Omari, an Advocate of the High court of Kenya, is connected to the offence or has information which can assist me in my investigations.

"With the powers conferred upon me under section 52 (1) of the National Police Service Act No 11A of 2011, hereby compel you to appear before me at the Directorate of Criminal Investigation situated along Kiambu Road At Mazingira House on February 22, 2023, at 9.30 am without fail," read the letter in part.

The DCI warned of consequences upon Omari if he disobeys the summons.

"Failure to comply with the requisition constitutes an offence liable to prosecution," read the letter in part.

The investigative agency is probing a possible cause of an offence of publication of false information following the raid which dominated headlines for one-half of February.

On Wednesday, February 15, as many as eight DCI vehicles were spotted at the compound during an operation which was supposedly meant to retrieve CCTV footage, on the same day the DCI issued its update on the progress of investigations surrounding the raid that took place on Wednesday, February 8.

"They arrested the watchman when he tried to raise alarm over the raid on former CS Matiangi's home," Matiangi's lawyer Dunstan Omari claimed while confirming the raid, adding that the police officers acted against a court order which barred the investigators from forcefully retrieving the CCTV footage.

"I know more than twenty police officers who raided Matiangi's home by name, and given a chance I would identify them one by one," he went on, further confirming that Matiang'i was not at home when the raid occurred.

Omari further noted that the police officers sneaked in unknowingly and ransacked the house and refused to present to him a court order, a matter which made Omari bar them from continuing their search.

"The police sneaked in without anybody knowing, arrested the watchman, broke the door and gained access to the former CS’s place, and ransacked the house."

"Nobody was present, the CS was not present. Immediately we arrived we asked them to give us the court order and we told them not to continue with any other thing until they present a court order. The officer in charge could not give a court order."

Omari further added that the officers dismantled the CCTV footage before vacating the premises, thirty minutes after the media arrived at the scene.

DCI boss Mohamed Amin found that after a comprehensive investigation, the investigative agency determined that no complaint was made at any police station regarding the alleged raid.

He also found that preliminary investigations indicated that there was a deliberate attempt to spread false information and incite members of the public.