The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) on Thursday, March 20, 2025, asked the court to extend detention days for the former Chuluni Member of County Assembly (MCA) James Mbuvi Wangunze and his accomplices to enable investigators to complete their work.
Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) lawyer Obiri Geoffrey told the court that the suspects had failed to comply with the court orders by failing to give the investigative officer access to their four phones.
“The respondents have failed to avail their phone patterns, passwords, and PINs, which is contempt of the orders of the court, and they should not be allowed to continue with such contempt,” lawyer Obiri told the court.
Obiri urged the court to allow them to detain the suspects for more days and enforce the orders to enable the IO to complete the investigations.
Meanwhile, the lead investigative officer, John Otieno Nyagara, took to the dock and told the court that the suspects had been feigning to forget their phones’ passwords and PINs.
Nyagara said that the three suspected of having been coercing and extorting government officers under the pretext of being Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) officers have strongly refused to avail their passwords and pins.
“The suspects have been claiming that they are not in a good state of mind to recall their passwords and PINs for us to access the information on their phones to complete investigations,” IO Nyagara told the court.
Appearing before Chief Magistrate Harrison Baraza, Nyagara told the court that there is very crucial information about government officers who were extorted by the suspects on the four phones they have refused to allow them access to.
Further, he told the court that in the absence of the information in the four phones, the investigations will not be complete.
Nyagara also told the court that he already managed to record statements from Siaya, Machakos, and Nairobi counties.
He is yet to record other statements from Kajiado, Kisumu, and other parts of the country.
Additionally, IO Nyagara told the court that they were able to access information on the other eight phones the suspects were found with because they were buttons and they did not have passwords on them.
However, the suspect’s lawyer strongly opposed the EACC request, arguing that the court granted them the six days they had sought to complete the investigations.
The lawyer termed the EACC application to continue holding the suspects, who he said have been cooperating during the investigations, as malicious, asking the court to dismiss the application.
“We call upon this court to dismiss prayers sought by the state to extend days for investigations,” the suspect’s lawyer told the court.
The lawyer told the court that it did not place a direct order to the respondents to avail their personal numbers and passwords.
He urged the court to either charge the respondents or set them free until the state finishes the investigations.
Chief Magistrate Harrison Baraza directed the suspects to remain in custody pending a ruling on whether they will be detained further on Friday, March 21, 2025, at 2 pm.
