Officers in Ruto campaign team murdèrs to be charged

National Intelligence Service (NIS), a Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and Special Services Unit (SSU) officers are set to be arraigned tomorrow over the abduction of two Indian nationals linked to President William Ruto’s campaign team in the run up to the last general election.

This comes after detectives from the Internal Affairs Unit (IAU) travelled to India to collect samples from the missing Indians’ relatives for comparison with the remains that were found at the Aberdares Forest.

“The family members had refused to travel to Kenya for fear of their lives. Arrangements were then made for the detectives to travel to India,” a senior police officer said.

Both the NIS and KWS officers were arrested and released on cash bail from Capitol Hill Police Station.

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations’ SSU officers, who had earlier been arraigned at Kahawa Law Courts with conspiracy to commit a felony and abduction, are also out on bond.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the KWS officer was in communication, and even met some of the SSU officers who are believed to have abducted the two foreigners and their taxi driver and drove them out of Nairobi to the Aberdares where they are believed to have been executed.

Forced disappearance

Detectives in their report said the officers are linked to the forceful disappearance of the missing Indians, Mohammed Said Sami and Zulfiqar Ahmed who are said to have travelled to Kenya during the electioneering period and were working with a digital media team allied to President William Ruto.

The IAU detectives have further said that during interrogations, it was demonstrated to them by way of technology that they were at the scene of crime, and at the Aberdares National Park where the three victims are believed to have been taken after their alleged abduction from Ole Sereni hotel.

SSU Officers David Kipsoi and Stephen Mutunda are alleged to have trailed the three from Ole Sereni to Westlands. Also, some of the officers confirmed travelling to Nyeri on duty and coming back in the course of duty.

Unit disbanded

On November 8 last year, 10 officers from the disbanded unit were summoned to appear before the IAU detectives for grilling. The officers were on night shift at the SSU yard and were summoned to shed light on what transpired that night.

Early December last year, the SSU officers who had been in custody for over a month were released on a Sh500,000 personal bond.

Delivering the ruling on the release of the officers, the then Kahawa Law Courts chief magistrate Diana Mochache, warned them against interfering with witnesses and to avail themselves to investigators whenever needed failure to which their bond terms would be canceled.

Mochache released Kipsoi, Matunda, Chief Inspector Peter Muthee, John Kamau, Joseph Mbugua, Joseph Mbaya, Paul Muriithi and Simon Gikonyo.

She also directed the prosecution and defence teams to agree on a date when the DNA samples of the nine officers would be taken at the Government Chemist.

DNA order

In her ruling, the magistrate varied her earlier order that the officers be escorted to National Forensic Laboratory for DNA.

An affidavit filed in court last year revealed that the two Indians and their taxi driver were intercepted on Mombasa Road near Ole Sereni Hotel, forced out of the taxi before being bundled into Subaru vehicles bearing GK numbers by four members of the disbanded elite squad, before being escorted to Aberdares National Park.

The affidavit was filed by IAU of the National Police Service.