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The Director of Public Prosecution has approved fresh murder charges against 15 officers from the disbanded Special Services Unit (SSU) for the disappearance of two Indians and their Kenyan taxi driver.

Mohammed Zaid Sami Kidwai, Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan and their driver Nicodemus Mwania Mwange were abducted the Southern Bypass near Ole Sereni hotel in Nairobi county on July 23, 2022 at around 1.03am,

Kidwai and Khan were linked to President William Ruto’s campaign team in the run up to the last general election and almost 700 days later, the two plus their driver have never been seen nor heard from. A probe was launched and later revealed that the victims were abducted by officers from the defunct Special Services Unit (SSU) of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).

Their call data also revealed that that night they travelled along the Nairobi- Nyeri road specifically at Mweiga in Nyeri to Aberdares National Park.

On October 18 last year, a total of 15 officers, 13 from SSU and one each from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) -were charged before Kahawa Law Courts with various offences including abduction to commit murder, cooperation in the execution of cruel treatment, conspiracy to commit a felony, and forgery.

The accused persons were identified included Chief Inspector Peter Muthee, Inspector James Kibosek, Corporals Joseph Kamau, David Chepcheng, Joseph Mwenda, John Mwangi and Hilary Limo, Constables Stephen Luseno, Simon Muhuga, Paul Njogu, Boniface Otieno, Elkana Njeru, and Fredrick Thuku, all from the DCI. Others were John Wanjiku Macharia (NIS) and Warden Michael Kiplangat (KWS).

The prosecution in approving the murder charges relied on the last seen doctrine of “last seen with” which states that the person who was last seen with a deceased is presumed to bear full responsibility for his death unless they can explain how the deceased died.

Bear responsibility

In this case, the officers will be expected to proffer explanations on how the three met their deaths.

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) has approved fresh murder charges against the officers and have since been detained at Kiambu Prisons without an option of bail.

The case which had commenced its trial at Kahawa Law Court will now move to Kiambu High Court where the accused persons will be charged afresh with murder.

During the hearing in March this year, detective Kennedy Ndeto from the Internal Affairs Unit (IAU) told Kahawa Law Courts Principal Magistrate Gedion Kiage that the accused persons were tracked from Mombasa Road to Aberdares Forest.

At the witness dock, Ndeto told the court that the tracking logs of the vehicle allegedly used by the accused persons showed that they entered Aberdares National Park through the Treetops gate at 6:34 pm.

The investigating team tracked the same from the Old Nairobi area where the disbanded SSU offices were located and followed them to Aberdares. “We established that the vehicles travelled up to the Aberdares forest,” he said.

Ndeto also said they accessed the call data records of the accused persons which placed them in different areas of interest including the SSU Offices at Old Nairobi area, along the Nairobi- Nyeri road specifically at Mweiga in Nyeri to Aberdares National Park.

The court was told that the officers were using motor vehicles KDD 632J, KDG 836X, KDH 262S and GKB 809U and other unknown vehicles, and with intent to abduct, trailed and intercepted the taxi the victims were using.

The court also heard that John Macharia while being a member of the NIS, subjected Mohammed, Khan and Mwange to inhumane, cruel and degrading treatment.

Chief inspector Muthee faced an additional charge of forging a work ticket for motor vehicle GKB 809U for July 2022, purporting that the handwriting belonged to Francis Muendo Ndonye with intent to deceive.