Inspector of Police Joseph Boinet

By TIMOTHY MBAYA

Migori high court Judge Anthony Murima has ordered Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinet to appear before the court in a contempt of court case.

This is in a case involving Officer Commanding Kehancha Police Station Kipsania Serem who failed to comply with a court order “to produce one Daniel Baru Nyamohanga before a court of law before close of business June 4, 2018.”

“ I therefore order that the inspector General of police Joseph Boinet to appear during the contempt of court proceedings either in person or designate a senior police officer from his office to represent him,” Judge Murima said.

This is linked with the case of the disappearance of Baru from police cells at Kehancha police station filed by his wife Rebecca Boke Mwita at the Migori high court.

Speaking to the press yesterday at the precincts of Migori high court, Principal Human Rights officer from the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights Victor Kamau, who is representing the family said Baru disappeared from the custody of police on January 17, 2017.

“This is an application of habeas corpus and the order of habeas corpus was given on Thursday May 31st 2018,” Kamau said.

According Kamau, the Kehancha police station OCS was ordered to produce Baru on June 4th, 2018 leading to the contempt of court case that had led to the summoning of the Inspector General of Police.

While delivering delivering the ruling in regards to the contempt of court case against the OCS, Justice Murima said there was every reason for the IG to take the mater seriously since the life of a person was involved.

“I am therefore persuaded that the Inspector General must take an active role in this case,” he said.

He added, “This order shall be extracted and be served on the IG personally.”

According to the statements recorded by the court of Boke arguing for the petition to have her husband produced in court, Baru was arrested with five others on January 12, 2017.

He called her the same day at around 6:00 PM to inform her that he had been booked at Kehancha Police Station.

Boke went to see her husband the following day but was not allowed but she was able to see him on January 14, 2017 at around 10:00 AM.

Baru was then taken to Kehancha Law Courts on Monday January 16, 2017 at around 9:00 AM but was not arraigned with others and was taken back to the cells.

His wife said she followed him to the Kehancha Police Station where she saw him but was not allowed to speak to him.

She again visited the police station the following day at 9:00 PM and saw those who had been arrested alongside her husband taken to court and released while her husband did not accompany them to the court.

From the court, she went back to the police station where she managed to speak to her husband around 4:00 PM.

The father of three told her that he had asked for Kshs. 35,000 that was taken away from him when he was arrested and he was separated from others.

She came back at the station the following day requesting to see her husband but was told at the report office that he had been released the previous day.

“She sought to and met the OCS who told her who told her that he had released the first petitioner (Baru) the day before at around 11:00 AM,” Boke’s statement on a judgment made on July 31, 2018 states.

In an interview Migori News conducted earlier in 2017 Boke who declined to speak to the press yesterday said her husband had told her that they were arrested in a crackdown on vehicles.

“The six including my husband were passengers and one was a doctor, another a fruits vendors, another deals in mitumba business and two were bodaboda riders,” Boke said

But according to the courts record of Serem’s statement of events on the night of Baru’s arrest alongside the five other suspects, the OCS was called and informed that the six were planning to rob some MPESA shops in Kehancha.

The statements also indicate that there was no record of any money from the suspects save for phones that were taken but were recorded as released to the suspects.

During a mention of the case on June 5th, 2018, the OCS Mr. Serem said he couldn’t produce Mr. Baru since he had released him.

But Baru’s father Nyamohanga Chacha asked the government to find his son since his family that solely depended on him was suffering.

“If the government knows where he (Baru) is let him be brought to me. If he is a live that’s fine, but if they ‘finished’ him let him be given to me so that I give him a good send off,” Nyamohanga said.

The hearing of the contempt of court will be on June 27, 2018.

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