Mystery accident witness jailed for impersonating military officer

Impersonator Dennis Muigai when he appeared in a Kwale court last year. [Photo by Tobias Chanji/Standard]

A man who shot to the limelight for appearing at accident scenes to give witness accounts has been jailed for impersonating a military officer.

Kwale Resident Magistrate Patrick Wambugu sent Dennis Muigai to Kwale GK Prison for one and a half years following a trial that began about three years ago, and which he had absconded several times last year prompting the court to issue arrest warrants.

During his court appearance yesterday afternoon, Mr Muigai frantically tried to stop journalists from taking his pictures. He walked to the courtroom on crutches.

He did not have a lawyer during the ruling and appeared to gasp for breath when the verdict and sentence were pronounced.

Although he was first indicted in 2015, the trial stalled because Muigai appeared in court once and before absconding.

Clad in two black jackets and without his trade mark dark eye shades, Muigai was charged with claiming to be a captain in the Kenya Defence Forces at Ukunda town, Kwale County, in 2015.

Traffic offence

Muigai was accused of presenting himself to a Police Inspector a Mr Loilobon as a Kenya Defence Forces Captain based at Moi Airbase, Nairobi, with the intention of escaping a traffic offence he had committed.

He pleaded guilty before Kwale Resident Magistrate Patrick Wambugu who convicted him without the option of a fine.

Muigai was in the news last year giving 'eyewitness' accounts to reporters at the scene of a helicopter crash in Lake Nakuru chopper crash, and later at the scene of the road accident that killed Nyeri Governor Wahome Gakuru.