The National Police Service has denied claims that the sacked Kenya Prisons Service Commissioner-General Wycliffe Ogallo was arrested.
National Police Service Spokesman Bruno Shioso issued a statement saying the police had not arrested Ogallo, but only facilitated a smooth and seamless handover of office by escorting the former commissioner-general to his home.
“This is to clarify that police only facilitated a smooth and seamless handover of office and escorted the former Commissioner General to his home,” said the Police Service.
“The reporting appearing in mainstream and social media that the former Kenya Prisons Service’s Commissioner General Wycliffe Ogallo has been arrested by police is not accurate as stated,” read the statement.
A short while after State House had sent out a statement replacing the prisons boss with Brigadier John Warioba, a contingent of officers stormed the prisons headquarters and whisked ex-Prisons boss into his official car and driven to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters, escorted by Anti-Terror Police Unit officers and investigators.
A few minutes later, the second group of officers emerged from the same offices with Charles Mutembei, the commandant at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison.
He was whisked into a police car alongside another man said to be his aide, and also driven to DCI headquarters for questioning.
Before the decision to bundle Ogallo out of his office was reached, he was scheduled to address journalists together with the incoming prisons boss.
Interior CS Fred Matiang’i was also to appear at the briefing, but he did not show up following the change of events.
The development came days after three convicted terror suspects escaped from Kamiti Maximum Prison in Nairobi in what security agencies believe to have been a case of abetted prison break.
Kenyatta appointed and witnessed the swearing in of Brigadier Warioba.
This is after the briefing to the Head of State from the Ministry responsible for Correctional Services regarding the security breaches at the Kamiti Maximum Security Prison that led to the escape of three inmates.
The President has directed the Cabinet Secretary for Interior and Coordination of National Government and all security formations to take all action necessary and pursue the Kamiti escapees with all the available resources.
The Head of State also urged all state investigative agencies to bring every person that is found culpable to full account.