Police stole cash, valuables, tortured our family: Jimi Wanjigi's son speaks on 12-hour ordeal

Speaking to the press, Jimi Wanjigi’s son, Maina Wanjigi said that the police officers conducted two searches in a span of two hours; one at 4:00 am and another at 6:00am.

While narrating the incident, he said that the first team of officers gained access to their home at 7:00 pm and began assaulting the family members including his mother and sister. 

He claimed that the masked officers, equipped with assault rifles, ordered them to lie on the floor and began kicking them on their heads, in an attempt to force them to cooperate. 

According to Maina, the family ceded to the officers’ will and agreed the officers to conduct the search, albeit without a search warrant. The officers retrieved iPhones, iPads, walkie-talkies for house communications and a receipt for buying fuel. 

He noted that the search lasted till 4:00 am when they left and two hours later, another team of officers arrived at the premises and conducted another search. 

“In brief, they came around 7:00 pm and forcefully broke the door. Personally, I was beaten up by five officers who were masked. Once they entered, they assaulted my sister and mother, asked them to lie down on the floor, kicked them in the heads, then from there we had no choice but to cooperate,” Maina noted.

“They did a thorough search till about 4:00 am and as a family we thought it was over and then at about 6 am, masked individuals came and dragged us out of beds, saying they want to search even more. Let’s say the current state we’re now is that the power is cut, wifi is down, we don’t know why they wanted to do two different searches.”

Delving further into the matter, Wanjigi’s lawyer Willis Otieno claimed that the second team of officers who conducted the search at 6:00 am stole jewellery, cash and other valuables in what he termed as an armed robbery and not a police operation. 

The lawyer added that the searches were a political witch-hunt against Wanjigi for his political stand against the current government. 

“In the process, they stole items and valuables belonging to the family members, disconnected power, interfered with the systems. They carried valuables, watches, jewellery, money and also did illegal searches in some of the cars including my own car and carried away some of the files and money from the vehicle. It is quite unfortunate that what happened in the second team was not a police operation but an armed robbery against the family of Jimi Wanjigi for his political belief and stance,” he said. 

Otieno also responded to the statement by Acting Inspector General of Police Gilbert Masengeli who claimed that the officers retrieved teargas canisters, police communication gadgets and smoke grenades. In the statement, Masengeli also ordered Wanjigi to surrender himself to the nearest police station. 

He said that the evidence was ‘planted’ to implicate Wanjigi as the owner of the said items. 

“They are claiming they discovered smoke grenades, jungle uniform, they are the ones who came with them. In fact, one of the people inside the home saw one officer walking through the back carrying blue bag that had three items that looked like mangoes, those are the smoke grenades. They came here to plant those things. They never wanted the family members to accompany them in the search,” he pointed out. 

The family has since confirmed that they will go to court over the matter.