DPP approves murder charges against 15 officers accused of killing two Indians, taxi driver

The Director of Public Prosecutions Renson Ingonga has approved murder charges against 15 security officers previously charged with the abduction and conspiracy to commit felony against two Indian nationals and their Kenyan taxi driver.

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 are accused of abducting Zulfiqra Ahmad Khan and Mohammed Zaid Sami Kidwai from India, Information Technology experts who had been brought to the country by the ruling Party-United Democratic Alliance (UDA) to bolster its technical team ahead of the 2022 presidential elections and Nicodemus Mwania Mwange before killing them and feeding them and feeding them to wild animals.

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.

With the approval of murder charges, their case now shifts to the high court nearly three months after the commencement of their previous abduction and conspiracy to commit felony trial.

At the start of the trial in March, the ODPP narrated how the crimes were committed in a well-planned and resourced scheme that began with tracking their whereabouts using their mobile phone signals before abducting them and disposing of their bodies at the Aberdare National Park in Nyeri County.

Earlier, the DPP had delayed the murder charge on the grounds that the results of DNA samples that had been collected at the Aberdare National Park had not been ready.

"In regards to the investigations touching on the proposed offence of murder, we note that the said report from the Government Chemist analyst and DNA sample is not yet ready. Therefore, the determination of the proposed charge shall be made when it is complete and analyzed. Consequently, you are directed to arraign the said suspects to answer to the aforesaid charges," a letter by the DPP to the Internal Affairs Unit that probed the case, revealed in May last year.

The delay had partly been occasioned by the logistics involved in the whole process including an Inspector General of Police-authorised travel by three IAU detectives to India in the company of a doctor to obtain DNA samples from the victims' family for comparison with their findings, following orders by the DPP.

The IAU began probing the case on September 15, 2022, when Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of the Administration Police Noor Gabow, then Acting Inspector General of Police directed the IAU to take over the probe and submit a report for action.

Over 21 SSU officers were then questioned over their suspected role in the abduction and murder and thereafter, the findings of the probe were presented to President William Ruto who at the time vowed to oversee a regime that does not commit extrajudicial killings.

The findings contained a recommendation to have the unit disbanded to pave the way for tightening of loose ends in the case before the file was forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions for directions.

A month later, the unit was disbanded and its fifty-eight officers disarmed and sent on a 30-day compulsory leave as investigations into their conduct gathered pace.