NPS opposes IPOA, DPP move to summon DIG Eliud Lagat over Rex Masai murder inquest
By Zipporah Ngwatu, October 30, 2025The National Police Service (NPS) has vehemently opposed the move by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) and the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) to summon the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Eliud Lagat to testify in the Rex Masai Kanyike inquest.
Appearing before Milimani Principal Magistrate Geoffrey Onsarigo on Thursday, October 30, 2025, IPOA, through lawyer David Tenge, and DPP, through lawyer Jalson Makori, told the court that DIG Lagat is a person of interest in the matter and they need to summon him.
Lawyer Tenge informed the court that IPOA had earlier summoned Lagat to their offices to record a statement and shed light on the matter, but he did not honour the summons.
“The DIG is also a person of interest because he had been summoned and did not come, and we want him to come and shed some light on some issues,” lawyer Tenge told the court.
Lagat’s summons
DIG Lagat’s summons by IPOA came after it emerged through a letter that the police boss had stated that there were no operation orders combating the Anti-Finance protests in June 2024.
“Please note that there is no operation order in respect of response to all the assemblies, demonstrations, picketing and petitions as outlined in Article 37 of the Constitution or any unlawful assembly or rioters’ assemblies within the meaning of sections 78 to 89 of the Penal Code,” Lagat states in a letter presented to the court.
However, according to IPOA, their investigations revealed that there were operation orders in other counties during the anti-finance demonstrations; their investigations showed that Mombasa and Siaya County had the operation orders.
It is from their findings that they decided to summon DIG Lagat to explain why in his letter he refuted there being operation orders during protests, yet Mombasa and Siaya had.
According to IPOA, they wanted the police boss to explain why Nairobi County had no operations order when Mombasa and Siaya did.
However, NPS, through lawyer Moses Kipkogei, opposed the request by the IPOA and DPP to summon DIG over failure to honour earlier summons by the IPOA.
After a heated court session, the trial magistrate, Geoffrey Onsarigo, gave the parties 10 minutes to agree on whether to summon the DIG.