Acting Inspector General of Police Gilbert Masengeli has suffered a major setback after the Court of Appeal declined to suspend his six-month jail term pending an appeal.

The bad news for Masengeli came on a day that a lawyer moved to court seeking orders to bar the police boss from holding any public office.

Justices Aggrey Muchelule, Gatembu Kairu and Weldon Korir rejected an oral application from Masengeli’s legal team, led by Cecil Miller and State counsel Emmanuel Bitta, to temporarily halt the sentence pending the appeal.

The judges ordered that his appeal be heard next week by a bench appointed by the President of the Court of Appeal.

Meanwhile, lawyer Charles Mugane has asked the High Court to declare Masengeli unfit to hold public office after he was convicted and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for contempt of court for disobeying court orders.

Breached chapter 6

Masengeli, he argues, breached Chapter 6 of the Constitution and violated the Leadership and Integrity Act No.19 of 2012.

“It is disturbing to the conscience of the right-thinking members of the Kenyan society as demonstrable from the public outcry against the said actions by the respondent that a State officer of the calibre of an acting Inspector General of the Police Service can blatantly disregard express provisions of the Constitution of Kenya and the relevant Statutory provisions,” he noted.

He added that Masengeli’s acts dishonour the nation and the office he holds, and erodes public confidence in the seriousness of court orders.

The Court of Appeal also yesterday granted the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) two days to file its responses in the matter.

The appeals challenging Masengeli’s conviction and sentence were slated for hearing yesterday but the LSK, a party in the case, said it was not ready to proceed.

The LSK explained that its lawyers were served with Masengeli’s appeal late and they needed more time to respond.

Needed time

The judges then adjourned the hearings. “We feel it’s a reasonable request. They have two days within which to file their responses. Both applications will be heard together next week,” they ruled.

Masengeli was on Friday last week ordered to serve six months in prison for contempt of court. Justice Lawrence Mugambi directed that he surrender himself to the Commissioner General of the Kenya Prisons Service.

Alternatively, the judge directed that the IG appear in person to answer to the “issues that he has been avoiding”.

Masengeli was required to appear in court to explain the disappearance of three people in Kitengela, Kajiado county, last month. Mugambi gave him a seven-day grace period.

“The acting Inspector General Masengeli can redeem himself by availing himself before this court in person to answer to the issues which he has been avoiding” and the sentence would take effect if he failed to do so, the judge had said.
The IG had snubbed court summons seven times. Upon conviction and sentencing, Masengeli opted to appeal.
In his appeal, he claims he was unfairly targeted and that the court had overstepped its bounds by sentencing him unheard.
He wants the court to suspend his conviction and sentencing. He also said the judge “made a mistake” by holding that he could not send representatives to explain why the order requiring the production of the missing persons had not been complied with.

He claimed the judge had disregarded his replying affidavit, which he said provided evidence that the missing Kenyans were not in police custody.

Commenting on the matter for the first time, President William Ruto called for a truce between the National Police Service and the Judiciary, urging the two sides to embrace a harmonious working relationship.

“I am absolutely aware that the National Police Service is an independent institution, and so is the Judiciary, but ultimately we have one master – the people of Kenya,” Ruto said.

“And we must make sure that we work together [to serve] not the interests of individuals, but the collective interests of the people of Kenya.”