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A Congolese national suspected to be involved in a gold scam business in the country had been detained in police custody for a period of seven days.
While admitting the plea by Paul Maina a police officer attached to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations DCI Operations Support Unit, Milimani senior principal magistrate Benmark Ekhubi admitted the plea to detain Mudera Mega Abedi for seven days,
“Following the submissions by the officer handling this matter I hereby consider granting the time sought for the purpose of investigations,” the magistrate ordered.
The magistrate also noted the conduct of the suspect whereby he was arrested at Namanga boarder’s immigration office while trying to escape the jurisdiction of the court.
The magistrate further noted that the suspect holds two travel documents bearing different names and concurred with the officer that he is a flight risk.
While convincing the court Maina informed the court that, on June 17, 2024, a complaint was lodged before their office of conspiracy to defraud which was made by Florian Vasile Romania. The respondent herein purported to be in a position to sell 500 kilograms of gold to the complainant.
The investigation was immediately launched and the suspect was arrested at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport following a stop order that was posted upoñ him by investigators after confirming that he was among the suspects who were behind commissioning the offence.
On April 4, 2025, the police file was forwarded to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions ODPP for perusal and approval of the charges, but due to the bulkiness of the documents, the ODPP needed more time,
“Due to constitution requirements to charge a suspect within 24 hours which did not happen, we released him and gave directions to report daily to the investigation officer,” Maina stated.
He was further required to detain his passport in the custody of police. The passport beared the name Muderwa Mega Abedi.
The suspect has been complying as ordered to appear before the Investigating officer on a daily basis accompanied by his lawyer until April 12, 2025, when he appeared without his counsel and was directed to report back on Tuesday April 15, 2025.
The suspect failed to appear before the investigators as agreed, only to learn by immigration counterparts at Namanga border that he has been arrested trying to flee the country. He was in possession of a Congolese temporary travelling document bearing the name Banambaya Kapapa Emery.
Following the actions and behavior of the suspect, “it came to the attention of investigating officers that the respondent is a flight risk and through the intelligence gathered, the suspect is being assisted by his accomplices to evade arraignment for plea taking.”
The officer further submitted that they want to ascertain the identity of the suspect since he has two passports bearing different names but the same photo.
The investigators also want to verify the authenticity of the documents from the Congolese Embassy and his travel history from immigration offices.
Finally they want time to the ODPP to make a decision on the charges after the perusal of the file.
The matter was scheduled for mention and further directions on April 24, 2025.
