Bogus policeman Joshua Karianjahi Waiganjo gets 5-year jail term after commanding officers for years

Police impostor Joshua Karianjahi Waiganjo was yesterday sentenced to a five-year jail term by a Naivasha court after he was found guilty of impersonating a police officer.

It was a mixed day for Mr Waiganjo after the court convicted him of five charges and acquitted him of a similar number.

Joshua Karanjahi Waiganjo for years impersonated an assistant commissioner of police in Rift Valley poses for a picture with some unidentified friends and in full police uniform before he was arrested. (PHOTO: ANTONY GITONGA)

Senior Resident Magistrate Shadrack Mwinzi noted that Waiganjo, who still insists that he is a police officer, had failed to prove the same before court.

In his ruling, Mr Mwinzi, who has since been transferred to Kibera Law Courts, said Waiganjo was guilty of impersonating a police officer.

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 the police had proved 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.

Even after a Naivasha court yesterday jailed Waiganjo for five years for impersonating a police officer, questions still linger how it was possible for him to play the system for years to the extent of posing as an assistant commissioner of police.

Free hand

Before the mystery unravelled in January 2013 when news of his arrest in Naivasha hit the headlines, Waiganjo had fooled police for years and had a free hand to even discipline junior officers.

At one point, he was in charge of transport during the burial of the late Vice-President Kijana Wamwala, a task that involved directing the motorcade of then President Mwai Kibaki.

The picture of him in combat fatigues posing as the deputy PPO in Rift Valley, squeezed in a police helicopter alongside the police’s top brass as they flew to Suguta in Baragoi in the aftermath of the police killings in 2012, is an enduring demonstration of how close to power he was.

The incident would trigger events that would lead to investigations into his status. Police sources indicated that during the Suguta killings, the suspect attended a high-powered security meeting where sensitive information was revealed.

Testifying in court, suspended Rift Valley PPO John M’Mbijiwe questioned the rationale and motive of prosecuting Wainganjo claiming the accused had worked with six PPOs in Rift Valley before he came in.

“I have worked in the police force for 30 years and I can tell an impostor from a kilometre away and Waiganjo was not one of them,” said Mr M’Mbijiwe who found himself out of a job alongside Lemi Ngugi over the Waiganjo saga.

“It was obvious in police circles that Waiganjo was Iteere’s right hand man,” an agitated Mbijiwe told the court referring to then police chief Matthew Iteere.

During his ‘operations’, Waiganjo had sent home over 10 police and anti-stock theft officers for ‘gross misconduct’.

Expressed shock

Some of the ‘sacked’ officers visited Naivasha Police Station where they expressed their shock on learning that the man had never been a police officer.

What followed were several cases running from Naivasha, Nakuru to Nyeri and in the process two former Rift Valley PPOs were interdicted. The two, Francis Munyambu and his predecessor Mbijiwe, who were based in Nakuru had worked with Waiganjo on various occasions.

While waiting at the Naivasha G.K Prison for his case to start, he wrote several letters to the Head of State and former PM Raila Odinga to intervene over his arrest.

Yesterday, Mbijiwe told the court that Waiganjo supervised transport for senior Government officials who included Kibaki and a host of other dignitaries.

Mbijiwe, who was a key witness for Waiganjo, termed the accused’s relationship with Mr Iteere as very close.

And as he starts serving the jail term, Waiganjo continues to cause controversy even behind prison walls.