Acting Police Inspector-General Gilbert Masengeli.
The High Court was quite generous in giving Inspector General of Police Gilbert Masengeli the ‘Get Out of Jail Free Card’ after sentencing him to six months imprisonment for contempt of court, then suspending the sentence for seven days.
Whatever happens within those seven days up to Friday this week remains to be seen. Mr Masengeli is presently a convict who instead of facing immediate arrest has been offered the luxury to bide his time before meeting the terms of court orders.
Ordinary people are not accorded such generous considerations. But then Mr Masengeli is no ordinary person, he is acting head of an institution charged with enforcing the law, but which breaks the law with impunity.
The issue at hand is not just about an individual displaying raw power, but about a National Police Service that in treating the law with contempt, has itself become a criminal organisation.
The issue is ultimately about a government that was elected on the promise to obey, preserve, protect and defend the laws and the constitution, but instead has gone rogue.
It is about the Kenya Kwanza lie. It is about President William Ruto’s administration putting on display all the broken promises as it marks two years in power.
Mr Masengeli had been summoned in court to explain the whereabouts of brothers Jamil and Aslam Longton, and activist Bob Njagi, who were abducted by people presumed to be police officers on August 19, 2024, during the GenZ anti-government protests protest.
Extra-judicial executions
Seven times, he defied orders by Justice Lawrence Mugambi to appear in court, taking advantage of extra-ordinary leeway accorded him, until even the patience of the court ran out.
The acting Inspector-General is a public officer. It must be taken that he cannot so brazenly defy the courts without the knowledge and sanction of his superiors, who in this case would include the Cabinet Secretary for Interior and Coordination of National Government Kithure Kindiki, who is supposed to ensure arrest if the contempt is not purged.
Attorney-General Dorcas Oduor, who as government’s chief legal adviser is supposed to represent Masengeli on the suit, and advice him on the imperative of obeying the courts, has been mute on the matter at hand.
The National Police Service Commission, technically the employer of Mr Masengeli, has under this regime has been reduced to a toothless bulldog; while the Independent Police Service Authority has seemingly been handcuffed when it comes to action against criminal police officers.
But the fish starts rotting from the head. President Ruto took office having pledged to end once and all for the culture of human rights abuses, enforced disappearances, extra-judicial executions and political control of governance, justice, law and order mechanisms as had become emblematic under his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta.
Two years down the line, we can see the national security organs under his regime have gone fully into default mode.
Series of abductions
Illegal abductions, false imprisonment, enforced disappearances and outright murder seem to surpass all the excesses of the previous government.
The entire national security apparatus seems to have been reduced to service of the Kenya Kwanza regime in combating political challenges, real and imagined. The Directorate of Criminal Investigations headed by Mr Mohammed Amin has been behind a series of abductions targeting suspected organisers of the GenZ protests and anyone else who challenges regime excesses.
Some of those abducted by masked and hooded police officers in civilian clothes with unmarked cars carrying fake registration plates remain missing many weeks later. Some have been found dead. Disclosure: I am one of the victims of Mr Amin’s abduction squads, but was extremely fortunate that a confluence of events forced my early release before anything untoward happened.
It is also apparent that the National Intelligence Service — which under reforms initiated by former director Wilson Boinnet had transformed itself from a political hit squad into a professional intelligence-gathering outfit — has under Ruto appointee Noordin Haji regressed to its bad old ways. It is fully involved in the abduction squads operating out of the DCI headquarters.
President Ruto has been denying reports of abductions, disappearances and murders. He has publicly challenged anyone with evidence of reported abductees and missing persons to give him the names. I hereby refer to him the case file that resulted in Masengeli’s conviction.
The three missing persons in reference represent just the tip of the iceberg. Reports by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, the Kenya Human Rights Commission and other rights watchdogs, and the national media, contain many more names. The ball is in his court.
[email protected] @MachariaGaitho
