Police Constable Charles Mbugua was arrested by police officers in Ruiru, Kiambu County while seeking a bribe from another police officer on the evening of Tuesday, April 14.
Mbugua's troubles began when he stopped a vehicle driven by Corporal Bernard Langat and attempted to extort money from him for violating curfew orders.
According to a report published by Nairobi News on Wednesday, April 16, Langat was driving from the hospital when he was stopped by two men, one of whom was Constable Mbugua and the other was identified Michael Njenga Chege.
The two were in civilian clothing at the time which made the corporal doubt their assertions that they were indeed police officers.
Constable Mbugua and his accomplice allegedly took possession of the officer's car keys and proceeded to demand money from him.
Constable Langat decided then to take action and raised the alarm after which members of the public came to his assistance and subdued the two men.
Langat's suspicion that the two were imposters was however proved partially false after it was established that Constable Charles Mbugua was a GSU officer attached to the Unit's Headquarters in Ruaraka.
It, however, rang true for his accomplice, Michael Njenga who was found to be a civilian.
While both will be charged with violating the curfew as well as extortion, Njenga will additionally be charged with impersonating a police officer.
According to Directives issued by Inspector General of Police Hilary Mutyambai on October 9, 2019, only officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) would be allowed to wear civilian clothes while on official duty.
The directive was meant to increase the visibility of officers in uniform and curb the rising cases of officers involved in crime across the country.
It was only in exceptional cases that police officers would be allowed to carry out operations in civilian wear but this would be dependant on authorisation from a police commander.
The directives also required police officers to surrender their weapons at the station armoury when they checked out of duty.
