Ex-KDF officer: I was chained inside DCI headquarters for a year without trial
A former military officer is seeking justice after he filed allegations against detectives for locking him up for a year in a dark cell without being taken to court.
Mr Frankline Opiyo Ogonji claims that he was abducted by people he claims were senior security officers, who bundled him into a waiting vehicle, and drove him to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters on the busy Kiambu Road.
Efforts to reach the Kenya Defence Forces and DCI for the last two weeks have been futile as mobile phone messages and emails have gone unanswered.
He said that he received death threats from those who held him incommunicado and that he now wants the matter exposed and those involved arrested.
Frankline Ogonji Opiyo.
Mr Opiyo has reported the matter to the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), the National Assembly, the Office of the Ombudsman, and the Defence Council in the Ministry of Defence.
IPOA Chairperson Anne Makori told the Nation her team has started investigations into the allegations.
IPOA
"The Independent Policing Oversight Authority is seized of the mentioned matter, which is under active investigation," she said. "In conclusion, the IPOA will make appropriate recommendations for relevant agencies to address the matter."
The tribulations of Mr Opiyo, who gave his military service number as 109256, started on May 30, 2019, when he was accused of stealing foodstuff from their work store and being absent without official permission. Earlier on the same day, Mr Opiyo had requested his annual leave, which was approved to start from the following day to July 1, 2019.
Before proceeding on his leave, Mr Opiyo said he left his vehicle in the care of a corporal after he requested to use the vehicle since he was expecting guests for the upcoming Madaraka Day celebrations.
He left Nanyuki around 9pm with his cousin, with whom he was travelling to Butere. He, however, claims he made a stopover to hand over the car keys to the corporal.
The two arrived in Butere at 5am the following day and later received a text message on his phone from a new number.
"By refusing to come, you are making matters worse; either come and be dismissed uendelee na maisha yako (go on with your life), or refuse to come, become a deserter, and end up in Kamiti (Maximum Prison) once arrested. (The) choice is yours," the message he received read.
Left his vehicle
Mr Opiyo says he tried getting hold of the officer he had left his vehicle with, but it was all in vain.
He returned to his station on June 11, 2019, where he was arrested and asked to record a statement. He was accused of going against good order and service discipline, which was against Section 121 of the KDF Act 2012, and of being absent without permission, which was against Section 75(1)(a) of the KDF Act.
Mr Opiyo was found guilty on both counts. On count one, he was dismissed from military service. On count two, he was sentenced to serve 14 days in prison, a sentence to be served at a guardroom in the Kenya Army Camp at Nanyuki.
Upon completing his sentence, Mr Opiyo was given his dismissal letter on July 1, 2019.
He also left with a letter of recommendation indicating that he was a hard-working service member who could work for any civilian organisation that needed him. The letter was signed on July 4, 2019.
Mr Opiyo returned home until February 2020, when he got his first job as a civilian with a security services company, until September 2020, when his contract ended because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
During this time, Mr Opiyo said he wrote three letters to his former employer to seek redress.
In May 2021, Mr Opiyo, who had left Nairobi, returned after getting a job with another security services company based in Parklands, Nairobi, and started work on May 17, 2021.
Mr Opiyo, who still protests his innocence, sought the services of Swaka Advocate to take his case against the military to the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Milimani after he got paid for the days he worked in May.
Seek redress
His lawyers filed civil case number 1026 of 2021 on June 3, 2021, after his efforts to seek redress bore no fruit.
But he said this seems to have been the beginning of a fresh round of trouble. In a statement seen by Nation, Mr Opiyo said that he was kidnapped on August 1, 2021, outside the offices of a security services company along Waiyaki Way. He had apparently received a call from someone who identified himself as the operations manager at the company.
"I received a phone call from an unknown number, from someone who introduced himself as the operations manager. He told me that he had information that I was in search of a better job and that they were also in search of a supervisor. He instructed me to visit their offices located near Safaricom's headquarters in Westlands immediately. I then rode to their office,” he said, adding that he parked his motorcycle in the company’s compound.
The former KDF officer said he was kidnapped immediately after he left the security company’s offices for a nearby shop.
Mr Opiyo alleges in his complaint filed with IPOA that the officers who kidnapped him were working under the orders of a senior military officer, whose identity we cannot reveal due to the matter's sensitivity.
He said they took away his two mobile phones, Sh8,000, an A4 envelope containing his documents and his shoes, among other things.
"I was then taken to DCI headquarters remand cells, where I was illegally held from August 1, 2021, to September 11, 2022, because of the illegal orders," he told the Nation in reference to his complaint filed at the civilian oversight authority. "During my stay, I was treated inhumanely, degradingly, and unfairly."
A missing person report for Mr Opiyo was recorded at Parklands Police Station by Ms Emmy Musimbi under Occurrence Book (OB) number 28/21/8/2021. Ms Musimbi was then working for the security services company that had employed Mr Opiyo.
A missing person report
Samuel Marwa, who used to work with Mr Opiyo, said that a missing person report was made after Mr Opiyo's motorbike was found abandoned in Nairobi’s Kibera area.
Frankline Ogonji Opiyo (left) confers with his friend Samuel Marwa at Nation Center on November 4, 2022.
"We looked for him for close to a month. His phone was also off. We then got a communication from the company saying that the motorcycle had been found in Kibera. Initially, the company thought he had stolen the motorcycle, but when the bike was found, we wondered where he was," Mr Marwa said.
The former officer alleges in his complaint that his woes started after filing a civil case against the military through his advocate at the Milimani Employment and Labour Court asking to get his job back. He also sought to clear his name over claims that he was the mastermind of theft and did not make himself available to the military authorities when he was required.
In his complaint, Mr Opiyo has also gone further and claimed there were three attempts to kill him while in “illegal” custody in a cell. On the first attempt, he points a finger at three detectives. On January 21, 2022, he said he had survived the second attempt on his life.
"They placed a knife on my private parts and neck with the intention to chop them off. All this time, they had handcuffed my hands to the back," he said.
On August 11, 2022, he alleges that he survived another attempt to eliminate him —but the would-be killers, who he claims were DCI officers-- murder attempt, which was headed by a team of seven detectives, received a phone call asking them to abort the mission.
Mr Opiyo said that he was forced to sleep on a cold floor while his hands were handcuffed behind his back, and his legs were always chained to a log.
On September 11, 2022, the people he alleges were DCI detectives picked him up at night; they blindfolded him, and the roadside dropped him near Parklands Police Station, and they handed him Sh2,000.
Detained him
The ex-KDF officer only managed to seek medical attention to treat wounds on his arms and legs that he got after those who detained him allegedly tied him during the time he was detained.
He was treated at the Mathari National Teaching and Referral Hospitaleight days later, on September 19, 2022.
"It took me a long time to seek medical attention because my NHIF card was inactive, and I did not have any money. I had to get in touch with my mother, who asked my brother to send me money for my treatment."
A medic who checked his records told us that the results from his hospital visit showed low iron levels. “There a prescription with an antibiotic allergy and pain killer,” the doctor said.
A man who we cannot name for legal reasons also alleges he was detained in a cell adjacent to Mr Opiyo’s and stayed there for eight months before his release.
"Mr Opiyo found me there, and we stayed together but in adjacent cells for close to eight months. I was released just before the elections. While there, we would pray a lot together,” the man told Nation, adding that they would regularly assist each other in remembering the days of the months.
Amnesty International Kenya's Executive Director Irungu Houghton called on the relevant authorities to investigate the allegations.
"Former Kenya Defence Forces officer and former Missing Person Frankline Opiyo's allegation that the Directorate has unlawfully held him for criminal investigation for close to a year deserves swift attention by the authorities. Our laws do not permit the secret detention of security officers or civilians without trial or access to lawyers and families. We call on the KNCHR (Kenya National Commission on Human Rights), Internal Affairs Unit, and IPOA to verify these claims and take the appropriate action," said Mr Houghton.
