Why police want to be debt collectors
What you need to know:
- Last week it was reported that police at Kasarani in Nairobi arrested Fredrick Mburu, technician who later died in the cells, for “obtaining money through pretence”.
- Often, the police conveniently arrest their victims on a Friday to keep them in the cells over the weekend as a way of pressurising them to pay up.
“Time and again the police have been warned that they are not debt collectors. Why do they involve themselves in arresting citizens on the basis of civil claims? This is entirely wrong.
Surely the police have enough work to do in containing crime and ensuring the security of citizens. Why add the unnecessary and illegal task of being debt collectors?
Why should a police officer oversee or be involved in a promise by a debtor to refund his creditor? That is the work of lawyers not the police.
The arrest and trial of the appellant (Mr Admjee) was totally unnecessary. I advise him to sue the police department for false imprisonment as well as malicious prosecution.”
Those are the words of Lady Justice Maureen Odero, some four years ago. She was overturning a conviction and sentence by Kwale Resident Magistrate A.M. Obura, who had sentenced Nabil Adamjee to three years’ imprisonment for obtaining money by false pretences.
In a judgment on November 17, 2010, Judge Odero found the magistrate had “totally misdirected herself in finding that the charge of obtaining by false pretences had been proved”.
Not much has changed since then. On March 3, 2014, Mr Justice Jairus Nyagah said in a judgment on Macharia Ruchachu v Director of Public Prosecution & Attorney-General that the prosecution of Mr Ruchachu was influenced by ulterior motives.
“The criminal case against him was for a purpose other than upholding the criminal law. It was meant to bring pressure to bear upon the applicant to settle a civil dispute,” he said.
He went on: “Criminal prosecution cannot be used to compel a party to settle a civil dispute. The institution of a criminal case for a purpose other than upholding the criminal justice was an abuse of the criminal process.”
MUCH LIKED POLICE PASTIME
The police are having a field day with debt collecting. Often, the police conveniently arrest their victims on a Friday to keep them in the cells over the weekend as a way of pressurising them to pay up. Like traffic work, this is a much liked police pastime.
Last week it was reported that police at Kasarani in Nairobi arrested Fredrick Mburu, technician who later died in the cells, for “obtaining money through pretence”. It was reported he owed Sh600 to a spares retailer. According to Mburu’s family, the initial debt was Sh3,600 and he had paid Sh3,000.
Often, the police conveniently arrest their victims on a Friday to keep them in the cells over the weekend as a way of pressurising them to pay up. If that does not work, they take them to court on Monday and oppose bail because “investigations are still going on”.
They rely on Sections 312 and 313 of the Penal Code, which, to put it simply, state that false pretence is the crime of knowingly making untrue statements to obtain money or property fraudulently. But they stretch the law to net all creditors and defaulters — at the behest of their apparent clients.
