Presidential guards arrested in Oscar Sudi raid

Police on Saturday arrested two officers working with the Presidential Escort Unit who they accused of helping Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi escape from his house after a dramatic 10-hour siege.

According to events recorded in the Occurrence Book at Langas police station, Kapseret sub-county and seen by the Sunday Nation, seven people were arrested during the raid, including the two officers who were later confirmed to be working with the Presidential Escort Unit (PEU).

Police claim that three officers from the unit came to rescue Mr Sudi from his house with a Toyota Prado and one fled with the MP while the other two stayed behind.

Three guns belonging to the officers were confiscated.

Detectives recorded that the two,Simon Siengo and Issack Dida were left in the MP’s house and arrested.   The third officer, CI Ekiru fled the compound together with the MP. 

The five locals who were arrested are Victor K. Kibitok, Stephen Chege, James Kemboi Kemei, Jonathan Maritim Kosgei and David Birich Kipyego.

Police said they will be arraigned in court on Monday.

The raid was led by a team of police officers under the command of the County Police Commander Uasin Gishu Johnston Ipara and and the County Criminal Investigation Officer (CCIO).

Officer was injured

During the operation, one General Service Unit (GSU) officer was injured on his right hand while trying to gain entry and the MP’s guard, a Mr Samuel Kibiwot, was shot on both his right and left shoulders.

Police arrived at Mr Sudi's home at around 8:30pm and camped until 7.10am on Saturday when they left without him.  By Saturday evening, his whereabouts were not known.

At some point in the night, youths armed with arrows, bows, clubs and machetes wanted to face-off with a contingent of police led by Mr Ipara outside the legislator's home.

The locals used power saw to cut several trees along the road, placed tractors and debris to barricade the road leading to the lawmaker’s home off the Eldoret-Kapsabet road.

Police managed to clear the road leading to his home at around 3:30am after receiving back up.

Lights switched off

At the residence of the MP, all the lights were switched off as senior police officers insisted that they were waiting for dawn so that he could surrender.

The home was literally dark with locals screaming and threatening to shoot police with poisoned arrows.

A cat and mouse game ensued between irate locals and police for hours, forcing the police to fire gunshots in the air to disperse the rowdy youths.

"In our culture, police cannot come to arrest someone at night and when they come, we consider them as thieves," said Mr Franklin Sigei, one of the youths.

Police finally managed to break into the home of the MP but the legislator was not there.

On Saturday, the lawmaker took to both his Twitter and Facebook accounts to accuse the government of taking the country to the ‘dark’ regime of Kanu.

“We are officially back to the dark days of the 1960s where Kanu and the Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU) were dominant parties. It has reached a point where we are not allowed to speak the truth...posted the MP.

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