A night in a Kenyan police cell is definitely one never to be forgotten. This is because of their repulsive and inhabitable conditions as well as overcrowding.
However, such conditions are not uniform in all the police stations, as there are some with apparent VIP status, and as a result, are preferred by the high and mighty in Kenya.
Muthaiga, Gigiri, and Kileleshwa police stations top the list of the most preferred detention centres by prominent individuals.
In July, State House digital strategist, Dennis Itumbi made an unusual request after he was arraigned over the fake letter alleging a plot to kill Deputy President William Ruto.
Itumbi who was to be detained in Kamukunji police station claimed that his life would be in jeopardy at the station opting for Muthaiga, Gigiri or Kileleshwa police stations.
“Owing to the said material that I have, and which the investigators know I have, and which they (investigators) desperately want to avoid, they want me confined at Kamukunji police station where hard-core criminals are kept,” claimed Itumbi.
Just a week before Itumbi's detention, police had requested to hold Starehe MP, Charles Njagua, popularly known as Jaguar, at Kamukunji.
However, his defense lawyers countered arguing that it was best to detain him at Muthaiga.
They claimed the MP’s supporters were likely to storm the station, causing commotion similar to one they created at the Nairobi Area police station, where he was held moments after his arrest.
The court then ordered the police to detain Jaguar at Kileleshwa Police Station for a day before it could issue its directions on whether to release the legislator on bond.
The MP had been charged with incitement to violence over xenophobic remarks.
Other high profile Kenyans that have been held in their preferred police stations include controversial businessman Paul Kobia, former Nairobi governor Evans Kidero, city lawyer Assa Nyakundi, controversial televangelist James Ng'ang'a, among others.
According to the Daily Nation, that visited some of the police stations, a good number of stations in the said suburbs are well maintained.
For instance, detention cells in Muthaiga Police Station, have in-built toilets as opposed to the bucket-toilet common in other police jails.
Additionally, its proximity to the affluent neighbourhoods of Runda and Muthaiga, where a good number of these high profile suspects live, has also made it a preferred station.
A police officer who also spoke to the Daily Nation outlined that some of the suspects who have spent nights in the cells claimed the station made them feel that they were within their neighbourhood.
Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) occasionally request to have suspects detained at Muthaiga because of its proximity to the DCI headquarters.
Cells in Kamukunji police station, however, are known to house hardcore criminals, are poorly ventilated, stink of urine, floors stained and crowded.
Its inhabitable conditions make it unattractive to suspects.
