Businessman Jimi Wanjigi has been ordered to surrender 11 firearms allegedly held illegally in a fresh guns tussle with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).
The DCI on Monday, gave the tycoon 72 hours to surrender the unlicensed firearms to authorities failure to which he will be arrested.
The presidential hopeful is also required to give up 485 rounds of ammunition in his possession.
“The illegal holding of Firearms and such massive amount of Ammunition particularly at this time of heightened political activity could be used to commit a myriad of offences including but not limited to maiming and or killing of innocent persons or opponents,” reads summons by investigating officer Kuria Obadiah.
“The Directorate has a duty to detect, deter, disrupt and investigate any intelligence or information either on complaint or on its own volition.
“You are therefore required to surrender the under listed Firearms and Ammunition to the undersigned at the DCI Headquarters, Mazingira Complex, Kiambu Road within 72 hours from the date and time of delivery of this Summons.”
The guns, DCI said, were discovered at Wanjigi’s Kwacha Offices during a recent operation by detectives investigating the businessman over land fraud.
“On the 17th January 2022, while officers of this Directorate were conducting Investigations into a Land matter and in which you were a person of interest, they encountered an illegally armed person within the compound of Kwacha Group of Companies where you were holed up. The said person disclosed that you had armed him as a bodyguard,” DCI added.
“It was later established that the said person is one Josephat Onyiego Mogendi, an Ex-GSU Officer previously attached to the elite RECCE Company. The establishment of the fact that the Officer is an ex is an indication of a high-level scheme that you have congregated highly trained persons in the use of firearms for ulterior motives.”
Wanjigi has been embroiled in a protracted legal tussle with the DCI over six guns confiscated by the government in 2017.
In November last year, High Court Judge Anthony Mrima sentenced DCI boss George Kinoti to four months in prison for disobeying a court directive requiring him to return the guns to Wanjigi.
The court had in February of the same year given Kinoti 30 days to return the guns as ordered by Justice Chacha Mwita in 2019. The police boss was expected to comply by March 30, 2021.
Read: DCI Boss Kinoti Accuses Wanjigi Of Harassment As He Appeals Guns Case
Justice Chacha Mwita had in June 2019 ruled that the State acted irrationally by carting away Wanjigi’s guns while he still held a valid license.
“The plaintiff’s rights were violated by the respondents. The actions of the respondents were unlawful and actuated by malice. The court grants orders that all firearms be returned to the plaintiff,” ruled Justice Mwita.
Police had seized seven firearms belonging to the businessman at his house in Malindi in 2017.
The crackdown was linked to his close association with Raila Odinga-led National Super Alliance (NASA) that rivaled Jubilee party in the hotly contested Presidential Election whose outcome was contested.
Read Also: Court Orders Wanjigi’s Release From Custody
Kinoti, who has since obtained orders suspending his prison sentence, has maintained that the said guns are not in his custody but that of the Firearms and Licensing Board.
The January operation led to Wanjigi’s arrest. He was, however, freed a day later after the court confirmed that there is an order staying his prosecution over the land matter.
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