According to reports reaching us, Joel Gitimu Wanderi a former Nakuru town councillor has been arrested for piracy… No, not Capt Jack Sparrow tings but piracy none the less.
Standard digital have carried the story in which they report that plain clothed police officers and officials from the anti-piracy unit arrested Joel Gitimu Wanderi in his house at Freehold Estate after several days of trailing him.
According to the police officers who were interviewed by the standard team, the suspect has for years been copying and distributing copies of books for which the authors or copyright-holding record companies did not give consent.
Detectives recovered several copies of secondary school set books analysed, recorded and saved in DVDs with seals suggesting they have been approved by the authors.
Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education 2012 marking schemes for different subjects were also recovered in the two bedroomed house in an operation that lasted for several hours. Heavy duty printers, DVD burners which Gitimu told the police officers were used in the production of the copies of DVDs at night were also impounded.
The River and The Source by Dr Margaret A Ogola, “Kidagaa Kimemwozea” by Ken Walibora were among the pirated books already supplied into the market. Others were poetry, theatre books and anthology of poems for secondary schools.
Copies of the Bible were also recovered in the room alongside a seal he had been using in the business.
The suspect who was alone in the house during the operation told the police and the media that he did not know he was breaking any law even after being informed of the same.
“These authors are either dead or cannot be reached easily and we rely on directions and authority from publishers,” alleged the suspect.
However, the former councillor was not in a position to produce any authorisation letter from the said publishers.
Source: Standard Digital
