Mystery surrounds the exact object found at Multimedia University compound belonging to a second year even as authorities gave conflicting positions on the device that the student which he claimed was his class project.
According to Karen Officer Commanding Police Division Cunningham Suiyanka, bomb experts confirmed the object was neither a bomb nor an improvised explosive device but it was seized to identify exactly what the student was trying to make.
“On Saturday, we were informed by the university security team they found something in the compound. We went there and called in the experts.
“The following day, a student told the management his project has been stolen and he was told to report to station and he came. This is a lot of misinformation going on but we are still investigating the matter., Suiyanka said. The Divisional Police Commander said the object is a computer motherboard with capacitors connected to it.
Today, social media flooded with messages indicating the student was caught assembling an Ied claims the police termed as untrue. “It is not yet confirmed it is an Ied. This matter occurred on Saturday and not today.
“People should not spread panic of fear messages,” Suiyanka said. However the student was todayday arraigned in court and detained for seven days for police to conclude investigations.
Joseph Kamau Ngugi was arraigned before Nairobi Senior Principal Magistrate Martha Mutuku and detained at Kilimani Police Station.
According to Anti-Terrorism Police Unit, Ngugi who is a student of Faculty of media and communication at the said university made the ‘IED’ on May 20 and placed it inside a garage within the University for unknown reasons.
He was arrested on May 24 and placed at Hardy Police station after the University called the police on him. ATPU investigating officer Ezekiel Luley told the court that the police are yet to interview him to know what motive he had while making the said device.
“Your honour, we want the suspect detained for 10 days to allow us conduct further investigations. His phone has been forwarded to forensic experts for forensic analysis,” said the investigating officer. In his defence, Ngugi told the court that the said ‘IED’ was a prop for shooting. He said it was a group project where were making a scene where a cheating wife was to be killed.
“We were a group of six in the project, I am the one who assembled the device through trash collected from engineering department. It was just a script and we were not aiming to scare anyone,” he told the court. He said they forgot to destroy the ‘IED’ which was not their intention and thus asked the court to release him as he was doing examinations.
“I informed the police about the group members but they refused to call them to confirm whether indeed what I was saying is true. They have confiscated everything from me,” he added.
The investigating officer refuted those claims saying those were new facts that he was not aware of. Trial Magistrate directed that he be remanded for seven days instead of 10 as requested by the police. “The officer should write to the University in case of any delay in the school exams,” she said.
