Police chief gets unprecedented jail sentence for contempt

Kenya’s acting Inspector-General of police, Gilbert Masengeli, has been found in contempt of court and sentenced to six months in prison after he failed to show up for a High Court hearing despite repeated summonses. The hearings relate to a petition brought by the frantic families of three men, abducted by masked, uniformed men, allegedly members of the police, a month ago. The families want the police to produce the three – but though the judge hearing the petition ordered Masengeli to appear and account for the disappeared men, Masengeli has failed to do so on seven occasions. In an unprecedented ruling, the judge held Kenya’s most senior police officer in contempt, saying the court had a responsibility ‘to punish deliberate actions that undermine the Constitution’. Now, notes Carmel Rickard in her A Matter of Justice column on the Legalbrief site, there’s public speculation that Masengeli might face further legal consequences as a result of his conviction.