NAIROBI, Kenya Sep 8 – High Court Justice Said Chitembwe has alleged the Directorate of Criminal Investigations stage-managed the recovery of 50,000 US Dollars during a search on the offices of his colleague Justice Aggrey Muchelule.
In documents filed in court on Wednesday, Justice Chitembwe narrated that the officers who claimed to be conducting an operation brought an unidentified lady into the Justice Muchelule’s office and proceeded to take her to the toilet in the presence of Muchelule’s secretary where they searched and allegedly recovered the money.
“The said officers also brought into Chambers of the 1st Interested Party (Muchelule), an unidentified lady seemingly under arrest, who without introduction to us, they then proceeded to take to the toilet of the 1st Interested Party’s Secretary and searched her allegedly and recovered US Dollars 50,000 from her,” he narrated.
Justice Chitembwe told of how he was accosted by the DCI officers while leaving Justice Muchelule’s office where he had gone to ask the colleague judge to join him for a cup of tea.
“Outside the door of the 1st Interested Party’s (Muchelule) office, I meet three persons who introduced themselves as police officers and ordered me back into the Chamber of the 1st Interested Party for an operation as they called it… when we asked for a search warrant they said that they didn’t need one for the operation they were carrying,” he explained.
Justice Chitembwe further said he voluntarily surrendered 7,000 US Dollars from his pocket, discounting a claim by the DCI that they recovered the money from his office during the raid conducted on July 30.
In documents filed in court, Justice Chitembwe explained that the money was lawfully obtained and it had been in his possession since July 20. The judge said he intended to use the money to settle his son’s school fees in Australia.
“I did remove from my pockets USD 7,000 that I had been having with me for purposes of paying for my son’s school fees at the Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia and handed over the same to the officers. There was no seizure of the said amount from me as I voluntarily handed the same over to the officers and a search certificate was issued to that effect,” the Judge stated.
Justice Chitebwe told the court that he and Justice Muchelele were yet to be informed of the nature of the crime they were being investigated for nor who the accuser is.
The two judges were arrested on July 30 and questioned at DCI headquarters for two hours before being set free.
