SUNDAY JANUARY 7 2018
The new Director of Criminal Investigations George Maingi Kinoti. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA | NATION MEDIA GROUP
One evening in 2005, George Maingi Kinoti lay helpless in the middle of Jogoo Road, Nairobi, writhing in pain after gangsters sprayed him with bullets and left him for the dead.
On the fateful day, Mr Kinoti was driving alone when he bumped into a five-man gang that was attempting to carjack a motorist.
With no time to call for back-up, and a gun in hand, he confronted two of the gangsters unaware there were others following in a different car.
After the shooting, he spent two months, including days in a coma, at the Armed Forces Memorial Hospital as it was known at the time.
CRIMES
Fast forward to January 5, 2018, and the man who was staring at death is Kenya’s top sleuth following his appointment by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Mr Kinoti, 50, now has the chance to rid Kenya of serious crimes, more so because he was once a victim.
He takes charge at a time the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, the wing of the National Police Service mandated to rid Kenya of complex crimes, needs reforms to redeem its lost glory.
He will lead the directorate.
In this office, he will find an overflowing in-tray comprising files of unresolved murders, robberies and other case files that have gone cold.
It has not been easy for Mr Kinoti.
In 2006, he submitted a resignation letter to his bosses after the new police leadership under former commissioner Hussein Ali attempted to create a new order.
TARGETED
He was one of the officers targeted after the former DCI Joseph Kamau fell out with the government of the day over the Artur brothers scandal.
At the time, Mr Kinoti doubled up as Mr Kamau’s personal assistant and head of Kanga Squad, a specialised unit that was mandated to pursue and subdue hardened criminals.
But the administration, on further investigation, refused to accept Mr Kinoti’s resignation.
Maj-Gen Ali then revoked his transfer to Kuria as deputy division commander, an assignment that had prompted the resignation, and deployed him to Vigilance House, the police headquarters, as the officer in charge of complaints section.
Mr Kinoti has led some of investigations that to date are cited by police instructors to their students.
He was the lead detective in the case involving author Ngugi was Thiong’o and his wife Njeeri, when they were attacked by gangsters at Norfolk apartments in Nairobi.
PRESSURE
At the start, with a different team of detectives, the case faced collapse and under intense pressure, Mr Kamau was forced to axe the team and constitute a fresh one under Mr Kinoti.
The first team had been working hand in hand with Prof Thiongo’s relative, Chege Kiragu, who was present during the attack.
But when Mr Kinoti took over, within weeks into the investigation he arrested Mr Kiragu alongside security guards who were guarding the apartment during the attack.
The guards are still languishing in prison although Mr Kiragu was acquitted.
Between 2004 and 2005, Ngong area on the outskirts of Nairobi became synonymous with strange murders.
After a string of killings and after efforts by the local police division to curtail them bore no success, Mr Kinoti and a handful of officers under him were deployed there.
Investigations showed that the gang behind the killings was targeting “new comers” who had bought land and built homes there in a bid to run away from the bustle associated with residential estates nearer to the city centre.
SHOOT-OUTS
In the operation that followed, involving shoot-outs and police stake-outs, sanity was restored in the Ngong suburb.
Mr Kinoti holds a masters degree in security management from Egerton University. He also graduated with a bachelors degree in sociology in 1992.
After a two-year stint at Vigilance House, Mr Kinoti was posted to Central Bank of Kenya where he rose to become an assistant director in charge of security and investigation services.
He left the posting in 2014 to become the National Police Service spokesman.
Early in his career, Mr Kinoti was appointed the district criminal investigations officer in Migori. He also served as the deputy head of criminal investigations in Busia between 1996 and 1999.
At the CBK, Mr Kinoti authorised and led crackdowns against illegal betting companies that had set shop in Upper Hill and at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi after which he was promoted to Assistant Inspector-General of Police.
INTELLIGENCE
Late in 2017, the new DCI was in Washington DC where he underwent training in border intelligence control, a collaboration between Kenya and United States governments.
Mr Kinoti is also a trainee of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime on anti-money laundering as well as anti-terrorism.
He was also among senior police officers who have been training with counterparts in National Intelligence Service on psychological warfare.
In the new order by President Kenyatta, Mr Kinoti is expected, among other tasks, to break cartels that have taken over Mazingira House, the DCI headquarters, on Kiambu Road.
These cartels, comprising unscrupulous businessmen and rogue detectives, work to ensure investigations are compromised so as to accommodate their interests.
UNRESOLVED MURDERS
This way, unresolved murders and crooked land deals are never fully investigated and thus law breakers are never taken to court.
Under Mr Kinoti’s leadership, just like happened after his predecessors took charge, heads are expected to roll to suit his style of doing things.
The changes in the NPS also affected officers who were Mr Kinoti’s bosses.
They are Joel Mboya Kitili and Samuel Arachi who were Deputy Inspectors-General in charge of Kenya Police and Administration Police respectively.
Mr Arachi was replaced by Mr Noor Gabow from the Kenya Police College while Mr Kitili was replaced by Mr Edward Njoroge Mbugua.
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