DCI disputes story of ex-KDF officer who was locked up for 1 year

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations has responded to claims from a former Kenya Defence Forces soldier who said that he was locked up at the DCI headquarters along Kiambu Road for a year.

Frankline Opiyo Ogonji’s story was published by Nation, in which he claimed to have been unfairly sacked from KDF, and was kidnapped after filing a court case challenging his dismissal.

He told the media that he was kidnapped on August 1, 2021, along Waiyaki Way at the behest of a senior military officer and taken to DCI headquarters, where he stayed locked up in inhumane conditions until September 11, 2022.

Frankline Opiyo Ogonji Pulse Live Kenya

"During my stay, I was treated inhumanely, degradingly, and unfairly,” he said, adding that several attempts were made at his life.

In a rebuttal, the DCI dismissed the allegations, explaining that the Kiambu Road headquarters does not have holding cells.

“We wish to state for the record that the Directorate of Criminal Investigations does not run a remand facility at its headquarters or at any other facility operated by the DCI or the Police.

“Remand facilities are run and managed by the State Department for Correctional Services,” the Directorate of Criminal Investigations said in a statement.

The DCI accused the journalist of failing to contact the communications department, adding that the former KDF officer did not feature in any of the DCI’s reports of people who had been arrested.

“The directorate is also not aware of any such person arrested by our detectives and therefore the story published by the Nation is not only inaccurate but preposterous,” the statement read.

The DCI called on the Independent Police Oversight Authority, where Opiyo said he reported the matter, to expedite investigations into the alleged story.

The former KDF officer said that while in custody, he was forced to sleep on the floor with his hands cuffed and his legs chained to a log.