The CID officer who is based at the Pangani Police Station was one of the people Mate (pictured) was scheduled to meet on the day he disappeared/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 22 – Three people, among them a CID arrested over the mysterious disappearance of Embu County Assembly Speaker Justus Kariuki Mate were due to be arraigned in court on Thursday morning.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officer who is based at the Pangani Police Station was one of the people Mate was scheduled to meet on the day he disappeared.
Nairobi Police Chief Benson Kibue said the officer and two other suspects were summoned on Wednesday and locked up as investigations continue.
Mate’s colleagues had on Tuesday claimed that he went missing after a telephone conversation with the CID officer, but police are yet to confirm the allegations.
On Wednesday, the High Court declined to grant orders sought by Mate’s wife to have the Inspector General of Police compelled to produce him after she failed to prove that police were in any way linked to the disappearance.
Presiding Judge Weldon Korir said Mate’s wife, Caroline Wangari, who wanted the police ordered to produce him had not provided sufficient information to warrant the court issue such orders.
Korir further directed Wangari to serve her application to the Director – Criminal Investigations Department, Starehe Divisional Criminal Investigation Officer (DCIO) and Inspector General of Police before Friday when the application is scheduled for hearing.
Mate went missing on Monday as he was attending a meeting to discuss the county’s budget for the coming financial year at a Nairobi hotel.
Wangari had demanded that the High Court compel the police to produce her husband claiming that police are likely to subject him to injury, mental anguish and inhumane conditions.
In a habeas corpus application filed in the High Court on Tuesday, Wangari claimed that Mate disappeared in the company of a police officer.
She claimed that a police officer arrested and took her husband into custody and had to date failed to produce him in court.
Wangari said that she has not been able to access her husband from any police station or received any communication on his whereabouts.
Embu County Deputy Speaker Ibrahim Swaleh explained that Mate received a phone call at about 4:30pm on Monday allegedly from a CID officer, and thereafter walked out from the budget workshop.
“He just walked out without his phone, driver or car and that is not normal. Our County Speaker has always been writing to the Embu County commandant asking for bodyguards and he has not received any response.”
About The Author
