Police impostor Joshua Waiganjo jailed for five years

Police impostor Joshua Waiganjo jailed for five years for impersonating assistant commissioner of police

Naivasha, Kenya: Police impostor Joshua Karianjahi Waiganjo has been jailed for five years by a Naivasha court after he was found guilty of impersonating a police officer.

It was a mixed day for Waiganjo after the court convicted him of five charges and acquitted him of a similar number in one of the many cases he is facing countrywide.

Senior Resident Magistrate Shadrack Mwinzi noted that Waiganjo, who still insists that he is a police officer, had failed to prove that he is indeed one.

The magistrate acquitted Waiganjo on two counts of robbery with violence after the complainants failed to testify in court.

He also acquitted him on two charges of impersonating a police officer and one count of dressing in police uniform.

He jailed Waiganjo for five years for impersonating a police officer, one year for dressing in police uniform and six months each for three charges of being in possession of government stores.

The charges will run concurrently meaning that the accused will only serve the highest jail term of five years.

Addressing a packed court, the magistrate said that it was the onus of Waiganjo to prove that he was a police officer.

He said that police officers have proven beyond reasonable doubt that Waiganjo impersonated an assistant commissioner of police.

He said that the accused failed to prove that he was a senior police officer as alleged and failed to defend his decision to wear police uniform.

The prosecution told the court that the accused had three previous convictions in Murang'a, Molo and Naivasha.

The accused, through his lawyer Simon Kamau, called for leniency noting that his client should not be punished twice as he was already serving two years for similar offences.

The lawyer disputed the past court records produced in court indicating that the accused had previous criminal records, noting that the names on the court papers were different.

Kamau termed Waiganjo as a changed man and remorseful adding that in the period he had been serving in jail, no complaint had been raised by the prison department.

The accused was given 14-days-right of appeal.