Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti once told a reporter that whenever he gets angry the Meru spirits descend upon him and take over. He is no longer able to speak properly. His mouth runs dry.
Spirits from Mt Kenya Forest were in full control of the top sleuth on Tuesday, April 20. “A visibly angry” Kinoti struggled on live TV to form words in his mouth and address a battery of journalists he had called.
Kisa na maana? Citizen TV journalists had dared to report the truth. Ukweli unauma, wahenga walinena. If you succeed to annoy the people you are supposed to annoy, great job.
Purity Mwambia’s investigative report “Guns Galore” that was aired on Sunday, April 18, sent everyone who watched it into shocked silence. When the chilling documentary ended, everyone found his or her tongue. The nation talked at once.
Pretending to be gangsters, Purity and her undercover team were able to “easily” buy guns and bullets and hire police uniforms and handcuffs from the same security officers whose primary duty is to protect Kenyans from criminals.
Social media burst into flames. In typical wry humour, Kenyans online inquired about how they might hire a full police unit to terrorise their enemies. Or a roadblock for a week to collect bribes from motorists. Uchumi ni mbaya, nanii.
An admirer stole investigative journalist Mwambia’s Twitter identity and for a while harvested thousands of likes and comments before The Observer flagged the fake account and ruined the party.
From his base at Mazingira House on Kiambu Road, DCI Kinoti watched the yearlong investigation with disbelief. Anger welled up inside him. The Meru spirits possessed him. He began talking incoherently, addressing no one in particular. Words couldn’t form in his mouth. He ordered a press conference.
Chief sleuth huffed and puffed before the cameras. And the journalists let the spirits of Meru do their thing. Kinoti’s point? Purity and her team got everything wrong.
The security paraphernalia they obtained were not from the police. They had been duped by criminals. Kenyan policemen and women, celebrated the world over for stellar professional integrity, would never assist anyone to commit a crime. Never.
Well, the documentary quoted the Independent Police Oversight Authority as saying at least 625 cases of police officers being involved in crime have been reported in the last 10 months. How about that, Bwana Jasusi?
When they were tipped off about allegations of policemen hiring out their guns to criminals, Purity and team should have rang up Kinoti so that they could dig up the matter together.
And so on. But it is what Kinoti did at the end of his show that set off alarm bells. He summoned Citizen TV’s editorial pontiffs to Mazingira House to explain.
That is intimidation. No other word for it. Journalists take responsibility for the work they publish. No one can purport to teach them their job, anymore than a reporter could presume to teach a sleuth how to snoop. Lanes.
CEO David Omwoyo warned Kinoti against violating freedom of expression, freedom of the press and access to information as provided in the Constitution in articles 33, 34 and 35 and the Media Council Act 2013.
“Summoning journalists about their work or coercing them to reveal their sources is a violation of press freedom and the Constitution,” Omwoyo said.
Kenya Editors Guild told Kinoti journalism is not a crime. “As far as we can tell, there is no criminal investigation against Royal Media Services’ editors and reporters over the production. The police service should therefore expend its energy and resources to [investigate] possible criminal activities within its ranks and ensuring that the culprits are brought to justice,” KEG president Churchill Otieno said.
Hats off to Purity Mwambia and the Citizen TV investigative gang. You earned DCI Kinoti’s angry salute!
