A Mungiki (illegal sect) leader, Maina Njenga, and his wife have been arrested over claims that he was smuggling firearms into the country.
Njenga, his wife Irene Wanjiru and their two-year-old baby were seized by police officers at Suera filling station on the Nyahururu-Ol-Kalou Highway on Tuesday night.
Njenga was fuelling his two vehicles at the station about 3km from Nyahururu Town when the heavily armed officers pounced on him.
According to Njenga's nephew, Mr Muiruri Wanjiru, the officers aboard three Land Cruisers ordered them to lie down. He had accompanied the couple, on their way to Nairobi from their Karandi home.
Wanjiru said the officers, some in plain clothes, blindfolded and handcuffed the family before bundling them inside the police vehicles.
Wanjiru said he escaped the arrest because he had entered a nearby supermarket to buy mineral water.
"The three were taken to Nyahururu Police Station at around 8.30 pm," he said.
But Laikipia police boss Daniel Musau would not confirm or deny the arrest claiming that telephone lines at Nyahururu police station had been disconnected and therefore he could not communicate with the Officer Commanding Station.
A police source told the East African Standard that Njenga was actually locked up at the station for about three hours.
The source said a special contingent of GSU officers from Nairobi were tracing Njenga's movements since last Saturday when he travelled from Nairobi to Karandi in Ng'arua Division.
The East African Standard reliably learnt that the Nyahururu police boss, Chief Inspector Daniel Wachala, accompanied Njenga and the 20 officers to Karandi where the firearms were suspected to be hidden, but found none.