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The famous Industrial Area Prison in Nairobi has been put under pressure to provide answers over mysterious death of a man they had locked up.

Family of the deceased Mark Nyamweya has demanded answers from the Prisons department over the death of their 27-year-old relative.

According to reports by one of the local dailies, Nyamweya died at the Prison last Tuesday after he failed to pay Sh200 fine. He could not pay the money to secure his release.

Nyamweya, alongside five others, were arraigned in Makadara and charged with being drunk and disorderly.  He pleaded guilty and was fined Sh200, with an alternative sentence of seven days in custody.  He was locked up.

His relatives say the circumstances surrounding his death were suspect. 

Family spokesman Nelson Mageto on Saturday said Kayole’s Soweto police and Industrial Area Prison should come clean on Nyamweya’s death.

He questioned why his nephew was arrested with 42 others but only six of them were arraigned.

He took issue with the Soweto police for failing to inform them of his arrest. They were not aware that Nyamweya had been arrested and arraigned until they were informed of his demise, he said.

A police source from the prison said Nyamweya died after developing stomach problems. “He felt bad, complained of stomach problems. He vomited and had diarrhoea before he died.”

The relatives were informed of the death by an officer from the prison who traced the club in which the deceased was arrested with the help of James Ongondi, who had been detained with Nyamweya. 

They were booked under OB NO 21/6/7/2019 at 11am.

On Nyamweya’s condition, he said, “A police officer brought him some drugs and water, which he took at around 12am on Tuesday. At 4am, he again started groaning in pain. He cried until around 5am. We banged the door, but no officer responded.” 

He said an officer brought porridge for Nyamweya at 6am. He took it and later died.

The relatives questioned the nature of the drug that was administered to Nyamweya, who diagnosed him, with what ailment and why the prison’s administration could not take him for emergency services.

His brother, Daniel, said they grew up orphans and Nyamweya had only stayed on Soweto estate for two months. He previously lived in Mathare North slum.  

The family has sought help from the Independent Policing Oversight Authority, with claims the officers at the station were not cooperative.

In a letter, the authority has sought documents from the Soweto police station boss.

“The complainant requests for OB Number, extract and charge sheet as regard his nephew Mark Nyamweya who was arrested on July 8. He was committed to Industrial Area Prison and was found dead on July 9. Please accord him necessary assistance,” the letter dated July 11 reads.

It was signed by IPOA’s complaints management officer.to IPOA so their investigators do their job.

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Mandera County Police Commander Jeremiah Kosiom has revealed that two Cuban doctors abducted in Mandera four months ago are still alive in Somalia but have since been moved to a forested area.

Suspected Al-Shabaab militants abducted the two medics after ambushing their convoy in April this year, killing one of their guards after gunfire exchanges.

Since then, little is known about the government’s efforts to rescue Dr Landy Rodriguez (a surgeon) and Dr Herera Correa (general practitioner).

But according to the police boss, search and rescue mission has been intensified in the war torn country. However, he ruled out exact date when the two are expected to be freed.

“Efforts are ongoing to rescue the doctors but I don’t know when they will be released. What I know is that they are alive wherever they are,” said Mandera police commander

In April, elders from Mandera crossed over the border to negotiate on their release. After days of struggling, they eventually met the doctors in the outskirts of El-Adde.

“Those we met at El-Adde denied abducting the doctors but admitted holding them in one of their hideouts. We were mistreated there,” one of the elders told the Nation.They returned after two weeks in El-Adde. 

“We eventually met the doctors but after a tough time. They (Somali elders) warned against sustained military attacks on their camps in search of the Cubans and we agreed on condition that the doctors are not harmed,” said the elder.

A recent security report showed that the doctors were moved to Halaanqo forest near Barawe town where they were allegedly converted to Islam.

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Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu has sued the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EAC). Governor Baba Yao wants EACC ordered to return all the documents it seized from his Thome and Runda homes last month.

Through his lawyer Oliver Kipchumba, Waititu says the seized documents include cheque books, log books and land titles.

He also wants the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission prohibited from future searches and seizures without hearing the affected parties.

The governor says on June 23, the EACC raided his homes and conducted extensive searches before taking away documents, among them title deeds and log books. 

“The search warrant was formulated and crafted in a manner that it was designed to be a catch fall trap and instrument that allowed the EACC to turn upside down and ransack my houses and belongings,” he says.

“The warrant, which was issued by a magistrate’s court, does not state the specific offences and crimes the commission is investigating in order to create a connection between the items seized and the offence purported to have been committed,” the court documents read. 

Waititu says the evidence before the court did not constitute and disclose reasonable grounds for the issuance of the order and warrant for search and seizure.

“I am not aware and I have not been informed of the investigations that are being conducted against me and I have not been afforded the right or opportunity to confront the allegations made against me.”

The governor argues that the subordinate court irrationally and unreasonably authorised for search and seizure “with a single sweeping blanket warrant that enabled the commission to carry out simultaneous and multiple areas of search and seizure”.

He also claims the subordinate court did not comply with directions elaborately set out by the High Court, anti-corruption and economic crimes division and that the warrants are illegal.

“No reasonable case was made before the subordinate court to enable the court to conclude that there was reasonable evidence of the commission of a crime by me. The search warrants given to the EACC to search my homes are, therefore, illegal because the offences and crimes were not particularised in the warrants,” the court papers say. 

Waititu believes the commission is on a fishing expedition as the search was conducted beyond what was authorised by the court. 

The search and seizure warrant was obtained by the commission on May 22. 

The case will be heard on Tuesday next week. 

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Police have arrested an 83-year-old woman who was posing as a banana vendor along the streets of Nyeri town top sell bhang to the locals.

Rolls of bhang were found hidden in the suspect’s bag which she used to carry bananas in her daily covert operations.

It is believed that that young men and women involved in the peddling business got their supplies from the apprehended woman.

The old woman is said to have been using her son as the middle-man to assist her in the supply of the outlawed product.

She will be arraigned in a Nyeri court before Resident Magistrate Nelly Kariuki today (Thursday, July 11).

Drug trafficking charges normally attract a higher penalty compared to the accusation of being found in possession of such substances.

With the local authorities reporting that they have enough reason to confirm that she was involved in the peddling of the drugs, the prosecution may decide level charges of drug trafficking against her, as reported by one of the online news websites.

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Discreet 69 years Francis Mburu Mungai is the single controlling the narrative of the controversial ownership of the Ruaraka schools land has deepened after a former associate of the controversial claimant unleashed a dossier exposing numerous multi-billion-land frauds.

In an explosive dossier, Meshack Onyango Dehay, a former ally of the man at the centre of the disputed Ruaraka land Francis Mburu Mungai reveals an intricate web of schemes to siphon the public of billions in fraudulent compensation schemes.

In his 42-paged personal statement sent to investigating agencies, the man denounced by Mburu as an extortionist turns into a whistle-blower and lays bare mind-boggling documentary evidence of rackets being played out by land sharks.

He lists dizzying figures being claimed and paid or planned by the government with the collusion of state officials, through non disclosure of information for multi-million kickbacks.

The dossier hasalready been received by Parliament and is now a privileged document.

Onyango claims Mburu has used the Ruaraka land to mint billions of shillings since the death of its true former “owner”, Phillip Wahome who died in 2004.

He claims that the initial land was LR. NO. 7879/4 and that it was never sub-divided into LR. NO.7879/24 and LR. NO. 7879/25 used by Mburu on numerous occasions to defraud the government.

Onyango claims Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, Nairobi governor Mike Sonko, Education PS Belio Kipsang’ and National Lands Commission Chairman Mohamed Swazuri among other top state officers are masterminds of the Ruaraka heist.

Early this year, the government paid Whispering Palms Estate Ltd Sh1.5 billion as part of the Sh3.2 compensation claim by Mburu for the acquisition of Ruaraka High School and Drive-in Primary school.

In what reads like fiction, Onyango paints a picture of a systematic plot by Mburu to defraud the State for over a decade. He alleges that Mburu had initially approached the late former Internal Security Assistant Minister Orwa Ojode to aid the scam for kickbacks.

But in what is promising to be a dirty war, Mburu has himself told MPs probing the land that Onyango is among disgruntled extortionists who were salivating for his cash.

The dossier has been sent to Parliament, the EACC, CID and DPP with Onyango seeking a chance to appear before MPs to reveal how top state officers connived with Mburu to steal from the public.

He now claims that his life is in danger following the expose.

“By a copy of this personal statement I request both the honourable speakers of the National Assembly and the Senate and their respective investigative committee to order that I be given personal security,” Onyango states.

EACC spokesman Yasin Amaro yesterday confirmed to the Star that the agency had indeed received the letter from Onyango and investigations were ongoing.

Lifting the lid on alleged behind the scenes maneuvers, Onyango says another mega scandal is in the offing at the Office of the President with the connivance of the Attorney General’s chambers which the courts plan to rubber stamp.

He says the taxpayers are staring at the loss of Sh141 billion through Petition No. 376 of 2015 and a further Sh840 million for the Ruaraka chief’s camp and Administration Police headquarters.

Onyango at the same time flags what could soon unfold as the country’s most choreographed scam involving the ministry of Transport and Infrastructure as well as the Nairobi County government.

He claims that a plot has been hatched by top ministry officials and high-ranking Nairobi county government officers to fleece taxpayers of a staggering Sh4.2 billion through a bus park to be constructed as part of the controversial Rapid Transport System.

The estranged ally who affects strong political connections says there is a plan to approve compensation to Mburu so that the county can put up a bus park on a fictitious 20-acre allegedly on the LR. NO. 7879/4 Ruaraka land.

Detailing how influential tender barons are working with top state officers to swindle billions, Onyango claim that another earthshaking scandal is unfolding along Ngong’  road at a “breath-neck speed(sic).”

He says there are plans to acquire LR. NO.7656 along Ngong’ Road at a cost of Sh13 billion and another Sh9.6 billion for Chakama Ranching Company Ltd land in Kilifi.

Onyango says the Kilifi land, now under the name of Mburu’s firm, New Agricultural ltd, was grabbed from the “poor owners.”

The businessman claims that negotiations are also at an advanced stage for Nairobi County to pay Mburu’s firm Afrison Export Import Ltd a claim of Sh24 billion despite a court order that absolved the devolved
unit.

Mburu’s companies were initially demanding Sh6.7 billion before the amount was scaled up to Sh12 billion, he says.

“Francis Mburu had put forward a proposal to governor Mike Sonko on how to share the loot once the figure is agreed upon before we had our disagreements in February 2018,” said Onyango in his letter.

Regarding the compensation of the Ruaraka land, Onyango claims that prior to the disbursement of the initial payment Sh1.5 billion, Nairobi county wrote off the land rates that stood at Sh700 million and replaced them with Sh12 million.

According to Onyango Sh170 million was to be paid as kickbacks but only Sh85 million had been paid to those involved by February this year.

“Before I left, the Nairobi City bosses were to be paid not by Whispering Palms Estates Ltd but through another related company called Champion Kenya Ltd.” he said.

Separately Onyango claims, Matiangi was to pocket Sh300 million, Swazuri Sh400 million, Kipsang Sh100 million and former Attorney General Githu Muigai Sh250 million.

“It can be seen that the initial correspondence on this claim was between Francis Mburu, Dr MuhamadSwa zuri and CS Fred Matiangi.

They have been the key drivers of this fraud,” he alleges. He, however, claims that Kipsang was initially unwilling to play ball despite pressure from Matiangi.

However, Mburu allegedly went through Ainabkoi MP William Chepkut whom he says is a close relative of the PS.

“Mburu gave him a proposal that he would pay Hon. Chepkut Sh100 million if he talked to and convinced Dr. Belio Kipsang to release Sh1.5 billion that had already been sent to the Education Ministry.”” he claims.

“It was after Hon Chepkut took Mburu to PS Belio Kipsang and Mburu promised to give Dr Belio Kipsang Sh100 million that the PS wrote to the National Land Commission CEO Tom Aziz Chavangi on the 15th January 2018 on this matter.”

“The alleged investigations by the Senate PAC and PIC Committees currently going on is a public relations exercise aimed at covering up for the thieves.”

He claims some senators already met with the authors of the fraud.

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