Kenya: Thousands of Dollars Found in Judges Muchelule and Chitembwe’s Chambers, Police Say

Police found 57,000 US dollars in the chambers of judges Juma Chitembwe and Aggrey Muchelule during the raid last week, the Director of Criminal Investigation said in court papers.

A total of $50,000 was seized from a woman, who was in the chambers (Chamber 230) during the search, and $7,000 was seized from Justice Muchelule, who allegedly facilitated the meeting between Justice Chitembwe and persons who were allegedly giving out the money.

Justice Muchelule was on his way to deliver pending judgments, while Justice Chitembwe was attending to a law student when detectives stormed their offices that are just a wall apart and arrested them.

Detectives searched both offices before taking them to the DCI headquarters for questioning. The judges’ lawyer Danstan Omari later told journalists that the detectives were searching “for money” but “did not find even a single penny”.

Both judges were released after 6pm, with DCI boss George Kinoti refusing to address journalists who had camped at his Kiambu Road offices for more than four hours waiting for an official statement on the arrests.

The suspected bribe was to be delivered to the residence of an unnamed judge, DCI said in court papers.

Last week, High Court stopped the police from arresting, prosecuting or further investigating the two judges.

Justice James Makau has extended orders stopping the arrest and prosecution of the two judges.