A Kahawa West law court released 26 suspects arrested over an alleged syndicate involved in the unlawful issuance of government documents.
This was after Magistrate Gideon Kiage declined a request by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to continue detaining the 26 pending investigations.
In a ruling delivered on Thursday, Magistrate Kiage said the DCI had not provided sufficient justification to keep the suspects in custody beyond the six days they had already spent since their arrest on December 5, 2025.
The magistrate held that Kenya’s constitutional framework guarantees the presumption of innocence and the right to bail, replacing earlier approaches that allowed detention for the sake of public order.
He said that courts cannot be used to compensate for failures by security agencies to maintain law and order.
“The State must demonstrate that continued detention of an individual without charge is the least restrictive action available,” the court said.
Kiage also said that the duty to protect the public rests with government security apparatus not with prolonged detention of suspects who are not themselves the alleged sources of threat.
The DCI had argued that the suspects posed a risk of interfering with witnesses and ongoing investigations.
However, Magistrate Kiage ruled that the police had had ample time to secure sensitive evidence.
He said that the respondents had already been held for six days, a period he deemed sufficient for investigators to record statements, secure witness testimony and preserve any material susceptible to interference.
“Although compelling reasons have been demonstrated, the period already spent in custody is adequate for the investigators to safeguard the integrity of the investigations,” he said.
The suspects among them civil servants from the National Registration Bureau (NRB), the Directorate of Immigration Services, chiefs, and freelance brokers were arrested between December 5 and 6 in a multi-agency sting by detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU).
They include, Judy Kemunto Ondari, Registrar of Persons office, Embakasi, Moses Mugoya Margaret, Clerk at the Registrar of Persons Head office, NSSF Building,Ruth Osebe Sukuru, Registrar of Persons office, Kamukunji; Jawahir Mohamed Muse, Assistant Chief, Eastleigh North; Moulid Yusuf Dige, Businessman; Mohamed Issack Gedow, Assistant Chief, Eastleigh; Abdirizak Osman Rage, Freelance middleman; Alfred Opia Ayaway, Freelance middleman; Abdirizak Abdi, Electronics technician; Abdirashid Mohamed Ali, Clerk at Shima Group International; Festus Bahati Chai, Fingerprints Technician, Registrar of Persons Head office; Abdirizack Bashir Farah, Freelance middleman; Samatar Osman Robne, Businessman; Fuadh Bulle Mohamed, Businessman; Geoffrey Mokoro Mutanya, Clerk at Immigration Head office; Joseph Mwendwa Munyithia, Registrar of Persons office, Kariokor; AbdiKadir Mohamed Dahir, Businessman; Berrick Kororia Maghas Sukuru, Registrar of Persons office, Kamukunji; David Korir, Clerk at Registrar of Persons Head office; Titus Mwanga Nthenge, Senior Subordinate Staff, Registrar of Persons, Head office; Yahya Daud Manor, Issack Abdow Mohammed, Nelson Katana Kazungu, Daniel Munywoki Kavuwa, Abdullahi Abdi Khamisi, and Abdirahman Roba Guyo.
According to the miscellaneous application , the DCI through Corporal Lawrence Kiniti said the racket involved the irregular issuance of passports, national IDs, and other vital documents, some allegedly granted to individuals believed to be associated with terror cells across Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda.
Investigators recovered a trove of government materials during the raids, including filled and blank ID application forms, fingerprints extraction tools, birth and death certificates, foreigner certificates, government stamps, passports, and multiple mobile phones.
In their application, police asked the court to allow them 10 working days to detain all respondents at Capitol Hill Police Station, to conduct forensic analysis of seized phones and electronic gadgets, obtain call data records and mobile money statements from service providers and to verify the authenticity of recovered documents with the Registrar of Persons, Immigration and Births & Deaths offices.
They also sought more days to conduct ID parades, trace and apprehend accomplices still at large, record statements from witnesses who investigators say may face interference if suspects are released.
During the operation, detectives seized a significant haul of government documents and tools found hidden in the homes of some suspects, materials that should strictly remain within authorised government offices.
The recovered items included: Filled and blank National ID application forms, Fingerprint-taking equipment (slabs, rollers, and related instruments), Birth and Death Certificates, Passports, Official government stamps, and other registration materials.
The two-day intelligence led crackdown netted civil servants from the National Registration Bureau and the Directorate of Immigration, alongside chiefs, financiers of the illegal schemes, and middlemen who fast-tracked the issuance of these documents through corrupt channels.
Investigations have uncovered a disturbing network of collusion, where civil servants brazenly bypassed laid-down procedures, exploiting their positions to facilitate the illicit registration and issuance of sensitive documents.
This criminal enterprise severely compromises the integrity of government systems and exposes the country to grave security risks, including the undocumented entry and exit of individuals.
The detectives said a number of investigations by a multi-agency team are already ongoing to nip the scam in the bud.
Some security officials have also been accused of colluding with aliens to get into the country and also failing to repatriate foreigners declared by courts as unlawfully present in the country.
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