Tuju spends night in police cells, to be arraigned at Kibera court 

Former Cabinet Secretary Raphael Tuju.[COURTESY]

Former Cabinet Secretary Raphael Tuju spent his Monday night in a police cell after his dramatic arrest in Karen over claims of self-abduction.

Tuju was expected in court on Tuesday to face charges of giving false information. He was driven to the Kibera law courts, where police planned to file the charges.

This was despite his complaints he was injured during his dramatic arrest at the Karen police station on Monday.

Police allowed medics from Karen Hospital to attend to him at the station and declined a request to take him to the facility for further attention.

His lawyers protested the move and termed it harassment.

Tuju resurfaced after being in hiding for almost 30 hours claiming he feared being harmed by a car that had been trailing him.

Few of supporters camped outside the station demanding his transfer to the hospital in vain.

The Director of Criminal Investigations Mohamed Amin dismissed Tuju’s tale on his mysterious disappearance saying he staged his alleged abduction.

Speaking hours after Tuju resurfaced under claims that he was hiding inside a home in Kiambu, Amin said that the investigative branch conducted a thorough forensic analysis that disputes Tuju’s claims.

Amin said that Tuju had been hiding in his residence throughout the time of his reported disappearance up to his resurfacing.

Amin said after Tuju was reported to have gone missing on Saturday, an investigative team was deployed to probe the matter.

He added that suspicions rose when Tuju’s family denied some of the officers access to his Karen home, prompting a heightened, delicate investigation.

“An operation team comprising uniformed police officers and plainclothes detectives was deployed to secure the premises,” he said.

“The homestead was cordoned off to preserve the scene to prevent any intervention or flight as the officers pursued a search warrant from the court.”

Amin said after the officers trailed Tuju’s movements from his reported time of disappearance, they discovered that he was in his house, even when his mobile phone was switched off at 6:16 pm.

“When confronted with the reality that police were closing in on the truth and that his deception could no longer be sustained, Mr. Tuju chose to resurface,” Amin said.

He faulted Tuju for staging an abduction to mislead the public, a matter he said is considered a grave offence, prompting his arrest to record a statement.

“This was a carefully staged disappearance rather than a genuine case of abduction. The NPS views this conduct not merely as an isolated act of falsehood but as an attempt to mislead the Kenyan public and undermine confidence in the institutions entrusted with protecting the public,” he said.

“The provision of false information is a serious offence. Accordingly, Tuju has been arrested and booked at the Karen Police Station to record a comprehensive statement explaining his whereabouts, the reports filed by his family and the particulars of the good Samaritans who gave him accommodation in Kiambu.”

Tuju said that he went into hiding after realizing that suspicious persons were trailing him on Saturday.

He said he informed police that he was being trailed by a land cruiser that did not have a plate number and later escaped.

“I branched into Nandi Road and they were not able to branch in … it meant that they had to turn or go round to follow me. That is how I lost them,” he said.

He would later abandon his vehicle along Miotoni Lane in Karen and go into hiding.

He was later detained at Karen police station in a dramatic move during which he said he was injured.