NAIROBI, KENYA, Dec 3- A police officer who allegedly clobbered his senior colleague and broke his arm in the presence of his wife and neighbours while enforcing curfew directives was charged with causing him grievous harm.
Constable Evans Mithika of Mawe Mbili police post in Ruai is accused of seriously injuring inspector Bernard Mochama of Administration Police Service’s Security of Government Buildings (SGB) Unit in Chokaa area, Njiru sub county of Nairobi on May 26.
Mithika was arraigned before Milimani law courts where he became the first police officer to be charged with torturing a colleague.
He also became the first officer to be charged after investigations by the National Police Service (NPS) Internal Affairs Unit (IAU) since its inception in 2013.
Mochama had been dropped by a motorcycle rider and was hurrying to beat the curfew when he was stopped by Mithika and his colleague who asked him to identify himself and where he was coming from.
He showed them his certificate of appointment with the NPS but they reportedly forced him to sit down.
Mochama gave his two junior colleagues more identification documents but they could take none of it.
Sensing he was about to be tortured, Mochama took off towards his home, some 100 metres away.
Mithika and his colleague are said to have pursued him and accosted him outside his gate, which he found closed.
The two are said to have assaulted their senior colleague in presence of his wife and neighbors, then called for reinforcement after members of public attempted to intervene and rescue him.
Mochama was escorted to Ruai police station where he was set free by the suspect’s seniors upon a brief interrogation by the station commander and other senior officers.
The matter was reported to IAU which commenced investigations and found the two – Mithika and his colleague to have acted in violation of service standing orders and committed a crime of inflicting grievous harms.
The IAU recommended charges of causing grievous harms against the two to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) concurred with the IAU recommendations and ordered immediate arrest and prosecution of the two.
Mithika was summoned to IAU offices in Upperhill where he was arrested on arrival.
He denied the charges before chief magistrate Martha Mutuku.
He was freed on a Sh300,000 bond and an alternative cash bail of Sh100,000.
The case will be mentioned on December 15.
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