Hopes of finding the General Service Unit (GSU) officer who went missing 36 days ago alive are dwindling even as the family yesterday said they had extended the search beyond Nairobi.

Corporal Joseph Otieno went missing on July 9 but has not been seen or heard from by family members, colleagues and close friends.

While his family members have accused the police of not doing enough to find their relative, the officers maintain that they have been working round the clock to trace their colleague.

Otieno, who was attached to the armoury at the GSU headquarters and had also served at the VIP protection unit, left his house in a car he had hired to go to a barbershop.

His second wife Carolyne Adhiambo said Otieno had said he would pass by a supermarket to buy some household items before travelling to his rural home in Maseno the following day with his first wife Anne Akinyi.

Maseno travel

His elder brother, who is based in Londiani, Kericho County, was to accompany them in the trip to Maseno. 

“He said he would pick me up on his way to the village at around 9am and he intended to leave Nairobi by 5am,” said his brother.

The family members were speaking yesterday at the City mortuary as part of the search.

According to the missing officer’s relatives, Otieno, a father of two aged 14 and seven, was a reserved person.

“The last time I spoke to Otieno was on Thursday night as we finalised plans for his travel on Saturday. On Friday, his phone went off,” said his mother Jane Otieno.

She said that after several failed attempts to reach him, she called Otieno’s wife and brothers to find out if they had seen or heard from him.

“His wife told me that she had talked to him at 9am on Friday and that from then, his phone had been switched off,” she said.

Car found

The following day, his mother received a call from Adhiambo informing her that Otieno was still missing and that he had not returned home the previous night. Neither was he at the first wife’s home.

This prompted the family to report the matter to the Kasarani Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).

Later, Otieno’s elder brother, Stephen Olweny, managed to get a CCTV footage from the GSU headquarters of Otieno’s last movement. It had also captured the registration number of the vehicle he was driving.

According to Kasarani Sub-County Police commander Peter Mwazo, the vehicle was later found abandoned within Mwiki area with all the car mats removed but other things intact.

According to the detectives, the officer’s phone signals were last traced around Naivas Ruaraka along Outering Road on July 9 at around 11.13am.

But after the car was found, the family said, there was no communication from Otieno’s bosses at the headquarters or the Kasarani DCI office.

On Tuesday, the family sought audience with the GSU Commanding Officer in vain. His seniors later only told the family that investigations were ongoing.

His father Antipas Otieno yesterday told People Daily that they had searched the body in several city mortuaries in vain.

“Some of the mortuary attendants have advised us to extend our search beyond Nairobi.

We traveled from Maseno today (yesterday) to look for him, but we have no machinery to do that. We plead with the government to intervene,” he said.

Elsewhere, police are yet to find an officer who went missing in July last year.

Constable Eunice Achieng Ogal went missing on July 30, 2020 after meeting her former husband who later allegedly committed suicide. 

His body was found dangling from a tree in Kamagak, Rachuonyo South in Homa Bay County on August 5 last year.