Career highlights: Remembering retired police chief King'ori Mwangi

The death on Sunday of former Assistant Inspector General of Police King'ori Mwangi has brought back memories of his lifelong career at the National Police Service.

Mwangi will be remembered as a brilliant but controversial officer who steadily rose through the ranks till his retirement in 2020.

He began by serving as a police constable and then a station commander in Nairobi and later became a provincial commissioner in different parts of the country.

His final role was that of a senior assistant IG posted to the Interior and Foreign ministries.

Mwangi served in the Nairobi, Western, and Coast regions as police chief before he was moved to Nairobi where he served as head of operations, police spokesman, and director of police reforms.

He was later appointed commandant of the Kenya Police Training College, and principal assistant to the deputy IG at the Kenya Police Service, where he served under retired DIG Edward Mbugua.

Mwangi's last posting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs came in 2019, a shift which eased him into a quiet retirement both in Nairobi and at his home in Nyeri.

Controversies

Some notable controversies that dogged Mwangi's career include a night raid at Nation Media Group in May 2005 by former First Lady Lucy Kibaki, who alleged a plot to have a "false" story about her family published by all leading media houses.

She accused the paper of printing lies about her behaviour when she disrupted a party for the outgoing country director of the World Bank, who lived next door to her private home.

Mwangi, then serving as Nairobi's provincial police boss, watched in silence as Lucy stormed the office and confiscated pens, notebooks, and a phone, only escorting her out when she was done.

Later that night, the Standard printing press along Likoni Road was burned down.

Several issues arose in 2012, as Mwangi was interviewed for the position of DIG, and in 2014, during a police vetting by the National Police Service Commission in 2014.

He was questioned regarding claims of extra-judicial killings, neglect of protection of the public, elitist protection of property, corruption, and the killing of GSU officer Erastus Kirui Chemorei on February 19, 2005.

Chemorei was the officer keeping custody of the key to the store where a Sh6.4-billion cocaine haul seized by police in a private villa in Malindi the previous year was kept.

"I have nothing to do with those issues. The cocaine case was handled at the CID, GSU, and police headquarters. Why am I supposed to answer to a matter that happened in Kitale? It is like suggesting I want to be the next pope yet I am not even Catholic," he said at the time.

He declined to delve into the controversy even as human rights groups insisted that the victim was killed on orders from above and said that during investigations, people are often quick to identify problems instead of solutions and to point the finger.

An inquest established the cause of Chemorei's death, which occurred when officers from the Kitale Police Station raided his Kitalale home, allegedly to recover arms following a tip-off by an informer.

The inquest found that Chemorei was sprayed with bullets at both close and long ranges and in all directions.

"There were at least seven bullet entry points, leading to the conclusion that the death was a result of multiple injuries in the head and in both hands," Eldoret Senior Principal Magistrate Ann Onginjo said in a ruling.

Accident, home raid

In 2021, Mwangi was involved in an accident along Lang'ata road, in which his vehicle rammed into two pedestrians prompting an attack by boda boda riders.

He defended himself, saying the two caught him off-guard and that he tried to slam the breaks to avoid what would have been a fatal crash.

In August of the same year, thieves raided his home in the Pembe Tatu area, Nyeri, and made away with assorted items valued at sh1.5 million. The thieves were later traced and arrested at the Majengo slum in Nyeri.

Mwangi's family announced his death in a short statement in which they did not specify what he was suffering from.

The family said other updates, including the burial plans, would be communicated in due course.