Six young men believed to be members of the Red-Army, a criminal gang operating in Kahawa 44 of Nairobi County, were on Monday arraigned at a Kiambu court but were not allowed to plead to robbery charges as police were yet to complete their investigations.
The investigating officer, Cpl. James Chege told the court that at the time of arrest, the first suspect was dressed in jungle uniform which he had allegedly removed while in the cells at the court premises prior to his arraignment in court.
He applied to the court to allow him to detain the suspects at the Kasarani police station for five working days which he believed would enable him to complete his investigations.
The six are George Gachie Kamau, Evans Odhiambo Ogutu, Robert Kariuki Mwangi, Kennedy Muiruri Weirimo, Julius Njuguna Nganga and Kelvin Odudu Elisha.
The investigator told Kiambu Senior Principal Magistrate (SPM), Ms. Stella Atambo that he was probing a robbery with violence case following the arrest of the suspects on November 18, 2019.
The officer told court that on the November 10, 2019, the complainant who is the owner of central bar and restaurant John Mwangi was attacked while in the premises by a group of men who injured him and stole cash money and other goods from the said outlet.
He further explained that he required time to fill in the P3 form of the complainant, record statements from witnesses and conduct an identification parade after visiting the houses of the suspects where he said he believed he would recover some stolen items following a spate of incidences that have been reported to the station.
The officer added that he intended to consolidate the case with another one in which eight suspects had earlier been presented in court with police obtaining granted orders ending on Monday, saying they were scheduled to appear in court today.
The court allowed the prayers in the affidavit of detaining them for 5 days at Kasarani Police Station.
The suspects however, denied that they were members of the said gang and promised that they would co-operate with the police in their investigations to prove their innocence.
By Lydia Shiloya
