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AG disagrees with police over Maina Njenga

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 11 – The office of the Attorney General has advised the police not to charge Mungiki chairman Maina Njenga with the murder of 29 people killed in Karatina because the charges – yet to be filed in court – are defective.

Sources familiar with the investigations into the Karatina massacre told Capital News that the file which had been taken to the AG for directions was handed back last Friday rejecting the murder charges.

“The police have been advised to either amend the charges or drop them because evidence contained in the files so far can not sustain a murder charge,” the source who could not be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media said.

Police have however, insisted they will present him to court on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Police Spokesman Erick Kiraithe who announced two weeks ago that Mr Njenga was being probed over the murder of the 29 people was not willing to discuss details of the case.

“Investigations are almost complete and the suspect will appear in court very soon,” he said without elaborating.

When Mr Njenga was re-arrested two weeks ago, Mr Kiraithe sent a statement to newsrooms announcing that Mr Njenga was to face charges of the 29 people who were hacked to death when members of a vigilante group clashed with the outlawed sect members in Karatina.

He had then stated that police were privy to information that it was Mr Njenga who ‘personally authorised the killing of the 29 people while in custody.’

At the time of the killings, Mr Njenga was in jail serving a five-year sentence over possession on bhang and a pistol but he successfully appealed and won, leading to his acquittal before he was immediately re-arrested.

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Capital News reliably established that Mr Njenga who has spent two weeks in various police stations in Nairobi was taken to Karatina where he would be held until he appears in court.

Spokesman for the outlawed Mungiki sect Njuguna Gitau told Capital News the suspect’s family was finally allowed to see him at the weekend at the CID headquarters in Nairobi.

“They (family) had never seen him since he was arrested but they were finally allowed to see him together with his lawyer,” Mr Gitau said.

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