Mistaken identity! Police apologise to veteran journalist Macharia Gaitho after dramatic arrest

Detectives have released veteran journalist Macharia Gaitho after his dramatic arrest on Wednesday morning in a case of mistaken identity.

Gaitho was arrested outside the Karen police station in the company of his son who filmed the arrest raising alarm across the media fraternity.

Macharia has been trailed by the detectives prior to the arrest.

Senior Journalist Macharia Gaitho has been arrested. Reports indicate he noticed a car trailing him and drove to Karen Police Station where he was apprehended. pic.twitter.com/2KneOWYeNX

— The Eastleigh Voice (@Eastleighvoice) July 17, 2024

Shortly after, the police in a statement said they had taken the wrong person and released him.

"The National Police Service would like to clarify to the public that this morning, we arrested journalist Macharia Gaitho in a case of mistaken identity, meant for the arrest of Francis Gaitho who is the subject of investigation. We reiterate that as a service we do not target journalists in any way, today's incident is highly regrettable," the NPS added.

Detectives later released Gaitho soon after.

Francis Gaitho is a social media influencer on X who on Monday accused DCI detectives of arresting the wrong suspect in the ongoing probe into Kware killings.

He had claimed that detectives lied to the public by arresting the wrong suspect and labelling him as the prime suspect in the killings.

The DCI later revealed that the suspect they had and the person alleged to have been arrested by Gaitho were two separate individuals.

According to the DCI, the person referred to by Gaitho is a Meru University Science and Technology alumni who later presented himself to detectives after images of him went viral on social media likening him to the prime suspect in the murders.

DCI Director Amin Mohamed in a statement accused Gaitho of fueling the panic on the graduate and his family by sharing "Name, images and description of another innocent Kenyan" thereby insinuating that the DCI had earlier issued a misleading statement.

DCI Director Mohamed Amin addresses the press at Jogoo House, Nairobi on July 14, 2024. (Photo: Justine Ondieki/EV

"Specifically, one Francis Gaitho (@FGaitho237) on his X account carelessly and with total disregard to the need to verify information, indicated that there existed no public record of our suspect and went ahead to post names, images and description of another innocent Kenyan by the name Jairus Onkundi," said Mr Amin.

Following the post that went viral, Onkundi made his way to the complaints Directorate seeking clearance for any culpability in the ongoing probe.

"According to the complainant, he had received the circulating posts from worried family members and friends at his workplace at Parklands in Nairobi, forcing him to rush to our offices fearing for his life incase he fell into the hands of agitated persons in the case of mistake of fact, " the Director added.

Onkundi is a computer science graduate who is neither a criminal nor wanted by detectives for any offence, added Amin.

The Prime suspect in the macabre killings was arrested at a club on Monday morning while watching the Euro football finals, the police had revealed earlier.