The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) says detectives found $50,000 in the chamber of Justice Aggrey Muchelule and $7, 000 from Justice Juma Said Chitembwe.
In an affidavit filed in court, the DCI, through Chief Inspector Felix Karisa Banzi, said $50,000 was recovered from an unidentified woman in Justice Muchelule’s chambers.
“That the search at chambers 230 and on the person of the occupants resulted to seizure of among others…..USD 50,000 on the person of a lady present in the chamber and USD 7,000 on the person of 2nd interested party himself,” the affidavit reads.
The Inspector detailed how detectives laid an ambush leading to the seizure of the cash.
Karisa said the DCI received intelligence on July 21 at 3 pm that after a series of meetings between certain judges and some brokers, a Sh7 million bribe had been agreed upon. The bribe was to be delivered to the residence of a judge at 7 pm.
The Inspector told the court that the time and venue of the meeting were abruptly changed. The exchange was rescheduled to July 22 at 7.45 am at Chamber 233 within Milimani law courts.
Due to the last-minute changes, detectives couldn’t obtain a search warrant, Karisa said.
He told the court that they arrived at Milimani law courts at 7.30 am and waited for the exchange. The meeting was allegedly being facilitated by Justice Chitembwe, the occupant of Chamber 233.
“We waited around the relevant meeting area from our time of arrival until 2 pm when information was received that the exchange was about to take place, but at chamber 230 which belongs to Justice Muchelule, ” the affidavit reads.
It is during an ambush in Justice Muchelule’s chamber that a woman was found with $50,000 and Justice Chitembwe allegedly had $7,000.
Muchelule was on his way to deliver pending judgments, while Justice Chitembwe was attending to a law student when detectives stormed their offices that are just a wall apart and took them to the DCI headquarters for questioning.
The officer also refuted allegations that officers arrested the judges.
Justice James Makau extended orders stopping the arrest and prosecution of the two judges. The case will be mentioned on October, 18 of this year.
