Trial of 15 security officers linked to abduction, murder of election experts begins

The trial of 15 security officers charged with the abduction and disappearance of two Indian nationals and their Kenyan taxi driver in July 2022 kicked off at the Kahawa Law Courts on Monday.

The officers include 13 from the disbanded Special Service Unit (SSU) of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and two from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). They appeared before Principal Magistrate Gideon Kiange.

Among them are Chief Inspector Peter Muthee Gachiku and Inspector of Police James Kibosek Tanuki.

They are accused of abducting Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan and Mohammed Zaid Sami from India, and Nicodemus Mwania Mwange.

The two foreigners were information technology (IT) experts brought in by a political party to bolster its technical team ahead of the 2022 presidential elections.

The three, suspected to have been killed and fed to wild animals, were abducted near the Ole Sereni Hotel along Mombasa Road in Nairobi between July 22 and 23, 2022.

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), in its opening statement, gave the court a chronology of events, noting the incidents were well-planned and executed with enormous resources utilised.

The ODPP detailed how the victims were trailed by officers from the defunct SSU, assisted by their NIS counterparts, who located the victims using their mobile phones.

The ODPP argues that the team was facilitated by KWS personnel in disposing of the victims' bodies at Aberdare National Park in Nyeri County. The bodies have never been recovered and are suspected to have been eaten by wild animals.

The prosecution, led by Jalson Makori and Harrison Kiarie, also told the court that they would rely on the testimonies of 30 witnesses in their case against the security officers.

Prosecutors are pictured at the Kahawa Law Courts on March 25, 2024, at the start of the hearing on the abduction and disappearance of two Indian nationals and their Kenyan taxi driver. (Photo: ODPP)

First witness' account

The first witness, who is an officer at the National Police Service's Internal Affairs Unit (IAU), told the court that he and his co-investigators from the DCI were tasked with investigating and apprehending the suspects.

He noted that during their investigations, they identified three vehicles—registration numbers KDD 632J, KDH 262S and KDG 836X—believed to have been used to trail and abduct the three victims.

He added that on October 6, 2022, led by the lead investigator, they visited Michele Gardens in South B, Nairobi, where they located one of the vehicles, KDH 262 S, in the possession of Edward Kamau Wanjiku.

Upon interrogation, Kamau introduced the owner, Fabian Mjomba Koshen.

The detective escorted the two to the South B police station in Makadara Sub County, booked the detention of the car and handed over the keys to the station commander, Chief Inspector Robert Mbui, under OB Number 16/6/10/2022.

Later, he escorted the two to the IAU offices at the KCB Towers in Upper Hill, Nairobi, for questioning.

Some of the 15 suspects in the abduction and disappearance of two Indian nationals and their Kenyan taxi driver, at the Kahawa Law Courts on March 25, 2024. (Photo: ODPP)

He further told the court that they continued with the operation and located KDD 632J Nissan Note at CIC Plaza in the custody of Evaline Waithera Wanjiku who was also taken into custody.

After a brief interrogation, she introduced another suspect, John Macharia Wanjiku. Consequently, they dropped the car at the Capitol Hill Police Station, where it was booked for detention. These investigations led to a series of arrests.

The investigators visited Aberdare National Park on October 19, 2022, conducted a search and collected exhibits, which were forwarded to the government chemist at the Kenyatta National Hospital.

This park visit was informed by the tracking logs retrieved from the vehicle suspected to have been used in the crime, according to the data from the National Treasury, the custodian of details of vehicles leased by the government.

In October 2022, President William Ruto disbanded the SSU, which was established by former DCI boss George Kinoti on December 31, 2019.

Kinoti created the SSU to take over the duties of the Special Crime Prevention Unit (SCPU) and the Flying Squad after he disbanded the two elite units.

All the officers serving at the SSU were transferred to different stations across the country.

They include the last man standing at the SSU, Corporal Elijah Mbaluka, who had been retained at the Nairobi area DCI headquarters to "retain institutional memory." He was transferred to the Kitui DCI offices and the nearly 300 police files previously left under him moved to the DCI headquarters.