Questions linger over unresolved murders and enforceable disappearances

The resurgence of unclear and controversial murders and mysterious disappearances of individuals whose bodies are later found dumped has sparked of possible existence of organised criminal gang linked to morbid executions.

For some, police inquiries have been opened, some closed, while for others, cases or inquests are still dragging on in courts, decades later.

The recent revelation that over twenty five bodies were retrieved from River Yala stunned the country.

Some bodies had visible marks indicating signs of torture, strangulation, head wounds and broken limbs.

According to the diver who got the bodies out of the river, some were in sacks, which had then been sewn up, others had polythene bags over their heads.

The bodies recovered from the river are not from Yala answering the question that these are not normal deaths.

Three bodies which were positively identified at the Yala Sub county Hospital Mortuary were that of Philemon Chepkony, his missing friend Peter Matuku and Erastus Ndirangu.

37-year-old Chepkony and his friend Matuku, who was the former General Service Unit (GSU) officer based at the headquarters, went missing on December 2, 2021 as they drove in a hired car to Kericho.

The car was found abandoned in Gilgil.

The two were arrested alongside Timothy Kamonde Kaguru and charged in 2018 with stealing a lorry, Isuzu FV2 valued at Sh11 million, belonging to the county government. They were later released in 2020 on bond.

The 41-year-old Ndirangu was last seen in November last year on his way to Nakuru from Nairobi.

Police are yet to establish crucial leads on all the other bodies since some of them had decayed or badly mutilated.

Meanwhile, the river Yala bodies expose has put a spotlight on the police for delaying investigations and subsequently ignoring the plight of families who have missing kin.

Police are usually among the first suspects when suspicious deaths and disappearances occur – with good reason.

Despite the suspicion there is no evidence that the security forces had anything to do with any of the Yala bodies. The police say some could have drowned or been victims of criminals and they have launched an investigation.

The murder case of Agnes Wanjiru, whose body was found in a septic tank close to a UK army base in Nanyuki, has been thrown under the bus.

On the night Wanjiru went missing, it was a night of non-stop sex with soldiers ferrying local sex workers back and forth to the rooms at Lions Court Inn hotel.

The 21-year-old was said to have been witnessed leaving the bar arm in arm with a soldier and entering his room.

A post-mortem examination found she died as a result of stab wounds to her chest and abdomen, with evidence that she had been beaten. However, due to the condition of her body it was unclear whether she had been sexually assaulted.

An initial inquiry into her death was unsuccessful, stalling when a request from Kenyan police to British Royal Military Police (RMP) that nine soldiers be questioned.

DCI are said to have given RMP 13 questions to put to the soldiers, including whether any of them had sex with Wanjiru on the night she died along with the request for them to provide DNA samples.

However, the Ministry of Defense said that, while RMT Special Investigation Branch officers had “carried out initial inquiries in Kenya, including providing information about British personnel to the Kenyan police”, it had received no further requests for assistance in summer 2012.

Additionally, investigations into the death of a senior official at the National Land Commission (NLC) are still pending.

Jennifer Wambua’s body was first found in a thicket in Ngong area about 30km from Nairobi City center in March 2021.

She was the commission’s deputy communication director. She went missing the previous day before her body was discovered, in the morning from her place of work and mystery surrounds how she left Upper Hill, Nairobi.

According to preliminary investigations, Wambua’s death was linked to a case in which she was a witness. She had given testimony in a case where Lugari MP Ayub Savula and former Principal Secretary Sammy Itemere have been charged alongside sixteen others with conspiring to defraud the government of Sh122.3 million.

Itemere was the PS at the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology when the fraud was committed.

Wambua testified as a State witness and explained how the alleged fraud happened. Before her death, she was scheduled to be cross- examined by the defense.

The progress made in investigating the murder of Dutch tycoon Tob Cohen is so uncommon of the Kenyan police force which has a history of failing to crack dozens of gruesome murders.

In the case of Cohen, detectives retrieved his body and arrested the suspects, who include his wife Sarah Wairimu.

However, his murder case remains unsolved with the trial of suspects proving to be akin to a mockery of justice.

In 2020, the year characterised by some gruesome murders and mysterious deaths, police officer attached to the office of Deputy President William Ruto was found dead in his house in Imara Daima, Nairobi.

Seargent Kipyegon Kenei was found with a gunshot wound in his chin.

Kenei was among person of interest that the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) intended to question over a Sh39.5 billion fake fire arms deal that was linked to Ruto’s office.

The AP officer had been missing a few days prior to his body being discovered and was supposed to accompany his colleagues to the DCI to record a statement on the fake fire arm saga.

Police had initially believed Kenei had committed suicide but the DCI ruled it out after visiting his house.

The investigations later took a political angle after Ruto accused the DCI of peddling lies and engaging in a smear campaign against his office in the investigations into the murder.

Other most notorious unsolved crimes include the murders of whistleblower Meshack Yebei, university student Mercy Keino, businessmen Jacob Juma and William Munuhe, university lecturer Dr Chrispine Mbai, and IEBC official Chris Musando.

Meshack Yebei went missing from his home area at Turbo in Eldoret on December 28, 2014, and his badly mutilated and decomposing body was found months later in March 2015.

At the time of his death, Yebei had claimed to have been one of the defence witnesses in the case against Deputy President William Ruto and journalist Joshua Sang at the International Criminal Court during the trials for the 2017/2018 post-election violence suspects.

Yebei had publicly stated that he received death threats prior to his disappearance and subsequent death.

Further, businessman Jacob Juma’s murder investigations was bungled.

Hundreds of people wanted Juma dead after he become a pain for government with his numerous exposé on official corruption.

In May 2016, his lifeless body was discovered in his Mercedes Benz along Ngong Road on the same day that he filed an affidavit in a Sh2 trillion mining licence dispute with the government.

Investigators said Juma veered off the road after being blocked by a vehicle driven by the killers and landed in a ditch.

The assailants reportedly fired at the bullet-proof Benz, and when the bullets rebound, they resorted to breaking the car window, through which they executed him.

Among the first people to arrive at the site were police who ended up distorting the crime scene. They are reported to have gone through documents that were in the car and towed the vehicle with his body still inside.

The triple gruesome murder of lawyer Willie Kimani, his client Josephat Mwenda and taxi driver Joseph Muiruri in June 2016 has been profiled as one of the remarkable cases handled by the DCI.

Kimani’s body and the other two were found dumped in the same river following morbid killings.

Willie, Mwendwa and their taxi driver Joseph Muiruri went missing on June 23, 2016.

Their dead bodies were found drowned at Ol Donyo Sabuk River nine days after they mysteriously disappeared from Syokimau AP Camp where they were allegedly detained after attending a court session in Mavoko Law Courts.

So far, four Administration Police Officers have been charged in court in connection with the deaths.

They are Senior Sergeant Fredrick Leliman, Corporal Stephen Chebulet and Constable Silvia Wanjiku Wanjohi and Sergeant Leonard Maina Mwangi.

According to an autopsy examination report conducted by Chief Government pathologist Dr Johansen Oduor the deaths were caused by trauma on the back of their heads inflicted using blunt object and consequent strangulation.

The post-mortem report showed all the three sustained head injuries which are consistent with torture before they were killed and drowned.

Kimani had a fractured skull.

Former Kabete MP, his driver and two bodyguards were shot dead in Nairobi on the dawn of February 6, 2015. Four suspects are in remand as the trial continues.

On 7 February 2015 Muchai was returning from a family dinner when his car was rammed in Nairobi.

Several armed persons emerged from the other car and Muchai was shot and killed together with his two bodyguards and driver.

Muchai was a troubled man by the time he was murdered.

He had tried to reinforce his personal security before his driver, two bodyguards, and himself were shot dead by a lone marksman suspected to have been either a skilled mercenary, hired assassin, or police officer.

Muchai had become increasingly jittery about his safety and was in the process of acquiring the services of a chase car, complete with three close protection officers as part of his security detail.