Details on how ex-government official celebrated Christmas in jail

Hillary Ngondi Kyengo

A high ranking diplomat spent the Christmas Day in police custody after he was detained over extortion and gun related charges.

Mr Hillary Kyengo, who until September this year was the acting Kenya’s ambassador to Russia, was arrested last week over allegations of attempting to extort an unknown amount of money from Teachers Service Commission chief executive Nancy Macharia.

He was arraigned last Friday but police obtained orders to detain him for seven more days to conclude investigation into alleged ownership of guns and ammunition found in his possession.

He is expected in court tomorrow (Thursday) after spending nine days in custody.

Mr Kyengo was arrested alongside two other suspects, James Ndirangu Kagecha and David Mwaniki Maluki.

He is alleged to have approached Ms Macharia as a detective from the office of Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti, where he demanded money as a bribe to kill off some purported investigations at TSC.

Police have not divulged more information on where the arrests were made and how much the three suspects had asked for.

However,  the three walked into Ms Macharia’s office and told her that they had a damning dossier on a scandal involving corruption in teacher grading and promotions.

They allegedly offered to drop the ‘investigations’ if Ms Macharia agreed to cooperate by giving them money, prompting Ms Macharia to alert DCI detectives.

The TSC boss is the complainant in the matter where the suspects were secretly filmed demanding bribes to “kill the case”.

DCI said the three suspects will be arraigned in court soon to face charges of obtaining money by false pretences.

According to Kenya’s embassy to the Russian Federation, Ambassador Kyengo’s three year tour of duty in Moscow, where he served since January 2016, ended in September and he was recalled to Foreign Affairs ministry headquarters.

Moscow is considered one of the high profile diplomatic postings in the league of Washington DC, London, Beijing, Berlin, and it is served by the country’s best and most experienced diplomats.

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