NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 22- The Lawyer representing Justice Aggrey Muchelule now says there was an elaborate attempt by police to ‘plant’ money in his office, in what would have been a daring ploy to incriminate him for allegedly receiving a bribe.
According to Lawyer Danstan Omari, two groups of officers approached the justice’s chambers, and identified themselves as police.
During the brief encounter, one group allegedly attempted to get Muchelule to leave his office as the other waited to ‘plant’ money in his chambers.
“There was a conviction that money was planted in his office, they did a search but no money was found. Thank God Muchelule never moved outside his office,” said lawyer Omari.
Shortly after, Justice Said Juma Chitembwe is said to have left his chambers and detectives quickly pounced on him.
After presenting their search warrants, they were arrested and escorted to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters where they were grilled and their statements recorded by officers from the Serious crime unit.
“it is a way to use the criminal procedures to tame him, to get him…this is the normal, ‘ we will revisit’…the independence of the judiciary is under attack,” the lawyer asserted.
Omari spoke to Shahidi News shortly after the two justices were released outside the DCI headquarters.
Justice Muchelule is one of the Judges who was not appointed to the appellate court by President Uhuru Kenyatta despite being cleared by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC).
A statement from State House revealed that they were not appointed because “they failed to meet the required threshold,”
“They have since gone home but they will be recalled if needed to record yet another statement. This is a total abuse of the criminal process, against the independence of the judiciary,” Omari said.
The Judges were questioned separately at the DCI headquarters.
Shahidi News did not immediately manage to get a comment from investigators at the DCI.
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