A look back at the week’s big stories as told on Capital FM News programme News Shot by Associate Editor Olive Burrows/CFM
NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 6 – Police are investigating the authenticity of a video making rounds on social media showing an officer stomping on a civilian’s head.
Police Spokesman Charles Owino says stern action will be taken should the video be verified as authentic as the service does not condone extrajudicial settling of scores.
The last cop caught on camera behaving badly was a traffic officer soliciting a bribe from a Ugandan national.
– Killer cop –
Staying with police matters, Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet says he is studying the murder conviction of celebrated Githurai cop, Titus Musila Katitu, with a view to appeal.
Musila was sentenced to nine years in prison on Thursday after the court found him liable for the death of Kenneth Mwangi who he’s accused of shooting three times at close range.
Mwangi died from a head shot wound after Musila gunned him down for snatching a woman’s phone.
Githurai residents took to the streets in his defence but the court was unsympathetic of his crime in spite of his crime fighting record observing that should have taken the deceased into custody.
– Judiciary Capture –
Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi’s claim that a section of judges have been ‘captured’ by activists and the Opposition has dominated headlines this week.
Matiangi’s claims before the parliamentary committee on administration of justice, have drawn strong reaction from rights groups, Opposition leader Raila Odinga and Chief Justice David Maraga himself.
Odinga has termed Matiangi’s attack on the judiciary and his predecessors who are not alive to defend themselves, as reckless and defeatist to the unity agreement between himself and President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Maraga has denied the existence of an ‘evil clique’ of judicial officers and advised dissatisfied with court rulings to employ the appeal mechanisms provided.
– Shabaab bounty –
The Interior Ministry has placed a bounty totalling Sh16 million on the heads of eight Al Shabaab operatives.
The operatives according to the authorities, are actively seeking to infiltrate Kenya’s borders from Somalia in an effort to carry out attacks.
The wife of one of those wanted by the authorities, Mahat Issack Abdile, was arrested in Mandera after being found in possession of five AK 47 rifles.
– Graft trials –
Former South Korean President, Park Geun-hye, was on Friday sentenced to 24 years on prison and fined Sh1.7 billion for graft.
Park was convicted of bribery, coercion and abuse of power; a guilty verdict being handed down for colluding with her secret confidante and long-time friend Choi Soon-sil in taking tens of millions of dollars from conglomerates in return for policy favours.
Park, the country’s first ever woman leader, was impeached and arrested in March 2017 over a wide-ranging corruption scandal that exposed shady links between big business and politics and prompted massive street protests.
Meanwhile in South Africa, another former President, Jacob Zuma, was in court in the port city of Durban on Friday to face corruption charges linked to a multi-billion dollar 1990s arms deal.
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