City lawyer says Pangani officers after his life

Nairobi city lawyer Ham Lagat has filed a case seeking to stop officers from Pangani police station station from harassing him over a civil dispute he says is outside their mandate.

Lagat said he is apprehensive the officers may kill him, harm his family, arrest or detain him if the court does not intervene.

According to the court documents, his company, Chamery Enterprises Ltd, entered into a joint venture agreement with the complainant for supply of goods to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital.

The venture followed tender his company had secured with the institution.

He did identify the complainant. 

Lagat said the complainant was issued with post-dated cheques with notice not to deposit before contacting him.

The complainant, however, went ahead and deposited the cheques without contacting him.

“I proposed a settlement plan to the complainant but instead the complainant resorted to the use of police to settle his personal scores,” Lagat said 

He said that on February 26 officers from Pangani police station drove into his residence at Millennium Villas Riverside accompanied by two civilians of Somali origin.

They started threatening him and hurling insults in front of his family, he said. The officers told Ham that if he did not sign an undisclosed document, purportedly a document relating to a civil contractual debt, he and his family will face dire consequences.

The officers, he said, have been constantly tracking his call data, his family and law firm employees.

“One of the officers from the station once contacted me, inviting me to an undisclosed private place with a view to negotiating a civil debt between myself and one Haji. I declined that invitation,” Lagat said in court documents.

He argued that the officers actions are clear violating his rights and he stands the risk of losing his life at the hands of police.

“I am apprehensive that the officers may kill me, harm me and my family, arrest or detain me. The officers are harassing me over a civil dispute that is outside their powers,” he said.

He has asked the court to issue an order retraining the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and Director of Public Prosecutions, named as respondents in the case.

He wants them restrained from from intimidating, tracking his call data and that of his family and employees and from prosecuting him, he documents read.

“It is irrational for the DCI to resort to the use of violence, intimidation and death threats and commencing investigations into a civil matter. It is also patently unreasonable for the DCI to allow its officers to be used by the complainant to settle personal scores,” Lagat said.

(Edited by V. Graham) 

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