Five Policemen in court for torturing Mumoni man

When the case initially came up in court on December 2, one of the accused was Dominic Mbangula  skipped the  session making the magistrate to move plea taking to today, December 18.

At that time the Kyuso Principal Magistrate Paul Mayova issued a warrant of arrest for Mbangula who is a traffic policeman currently besed in Nairobi.

Although the four other policemen who were charged alongside Mbangula were in court then, Mayova  moved the plea taking the December 18  to accommodate the missing policeman.

When the accused persons Inspector Daniel Mutua, Corporal Benson Kimotho and three Police Constables Kelvin Kirwa, Alfred Natire and Mbangula were in court on Wednesday ,they pleaded not guilty to torturing Japheth Manzi in 2021.

They were alleged to have committed the offense at Ngungani police Station in Mumoni sub county of Kitui County in 2021 where they were holding Manzi after arresting him.

Magistrate Mayova ordered the accused to be released on a Sh250,000 bond or a cash bail of Sh50,000 each.

The five accused were further ordered to return to Kyuso Law Courts on March 31 next year for hearing of their case which is set for a mention on January 8, 2025.

If convicted,they will be imprisoned for a term not exceeding 25 years since that's what the Kenyan penal code provides for such crimes.

The five accused  are no longer working in Ngungani as they have since been dispatched to other police stations across the country after the alleged brutalizing of  Mr Manzi.

According to Manzi,  he was arrested at his Ngungani home in Mumoni sub county and frogmarched to Ngungani police station over accusations of possessing dangerous weapons. He told journalists then that police failed to find the weapons in his house, leaving him after a severe beating.They also stripped him naked and squeezed his manhood.