THE IMPOSTOR PPO

So the Rift Valley has been having an impostor PPO for the last five years? Just how can this happen? And he is said to have harrased, fired and even taken over the wives of some junior officers? This is Kenya at its best.

The guy, once a matatu conductor in Naivasha, has conned the police across the Rift valley that he was an assistant commissioner of police. This came as the suspect, Joshua Karanjahi Waiganjo, who also posed as the Deputy PPO Rift Valley province, was charged in a Naivasha  court with four different counts.

Fearful members of the public turned out as the suspect was taken to court. They came to disclose how he fleeced them and sacked police officers at will. Some of those interviewed said the man came to Naivasha in 1997 from Timboroa and was employed as a matatu conductor. He is said to have claimed to have been displaced by the post-election violence and worked along the Nairobi-Naivasha road for some years. Later he headed to Eldoret where he worked as a bodyguard  to an influential transporter before he was fired. The witnesses later came to learn that he had joined the police force and would from time to time be seen in company of senior police officers.

A Naivasha businessman who declined to be named also said he had met the accused several times at the Rift Valley Provincial headquarters where he had "assisted" many.

So if this has really happened, how safe are we? How many other imposters are out there? And on whose payroll was the said imposter? And where was he getting the uniforms, weapons, vehicles and so on? Does it mean there was someone who was covering him?

But then, as I say, some things only happen in Kenya.

Earlier details had emerged that the suspect flew in a police chopper accompanied by senior officers to Suguta valley after over 40 police officers were killed.

Arraigned before Naivasha Senior Principal magistrate Esther Boke, Waiganjo was charged with one count of robbery with violence. He is also faced with two charges of impersonation and being in possession of assorted police uniform

He was charged that on the 16th August 2012 at Kikopey, he and others not in court robbed one Mwangi Njoroge  of his lorry and phone, all valued at Ksh. 4 million. He also faced two other charges of impersonation as a senior police officer in Anti-stock theft unit in Gilgil and Njoro.

The last charge was that he was found, in his homes in Gilgil and Njoro, with assorted police uniforms which he had acquired unlawfully.

The suspect denied all the charges and was remanded until January 9.

This is Kenya indeed.