Two suspects in Omondi murder had been arrested for possessing stolen phones

The two civilians facing murder charges over the death of teacher-turned blogger Albert Omondi Ojwang had been arrested alongside two others early this month after they were found with stolen phones, a toy gun and rubber bullets in the Nairobi city centre.

The two, Gin Ammitou Abwao and Brian Mwaniki Njue, alongside Collins Karani Ireri and Jeremiah Kagendo Gichovi, were arraigned before Milimani law courts on Thursday, June 5, where the police sought orders to detain them for 14 days to enable them conclude investigations.

The four were arrested by police officers from Central Police Station along Kenyatta Avenue after spotting a red Audi AI, registration number KDL 290 B, parked near shell petrol station.

“In the said motor vehicle were four occupants, the respondents here-in, who were ordered to get out of the vehicle,” according to an affidavit sworn by Corporal Ben Muyei.

Upon conducting a search, the officers found several phones, a Samsung S23 Ultra, a Samsung Galaxy Ao4, a 14 Pro-max, a Redmi 14c, a Samsung S23 Ultra and an Infinix 915 Oppo ASS, which they suspected to be stolen property.

Also found in the car were a Revolver Toy Gun (White), an AK47 CCCP Knife and six rubber bullets.

The officers proceeded to arrest the four and escorted them to the station.

Muyei told the court that they needed more time to conduct a ballistic examination on the toy gun to establish whether it was capable of firing as well as the rubber bullets.

He stated that cybercrime experts also needed to analyse the mobile phones, which they believed contained vital information that could link the suspects to further criminal activity.

In addition, Muyei said they needed to conduct searches at their homes in Nairobi and Kiambu counties to ascertain whether they were in possession of an other weapons they use to conduct criminal activities.

“Their release at this stage could interfere with ongoing investigations and hinder the arrest of additional suspects who are still at large,” he told the court.

Abwao and Njue were on arraigned before Justice Diana Kavedza at the Kibera High Court alongside another civilian John Ngige Gitau, who was also being held at the station.

Others were Officer Commanding Station (OCS) Samson Kiprotich Talaam, James Mukhwana, who held the keys to the cells on the fateful night, and Peter Kimani, who was the cell sentry on duty at the time.

This followed Director of Public Prosecutions Renson Ingonga’s approval of murder charges against them after his office studied a file submitted by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA).

However, they did not take a plea as some of them did not have legal representation. They will return to court at 10:30 am on Tuesday.

It is suspected that the three civilians, who were in remand at the station on the night Omondi was beaten unconscious, are the ones who were used to clobber him.

Reports in The Standard newspaper last Friday claimed that Mukhwana had confessed to IPOA that he was given money by Talaam to look for inmates to “punish” Omondi to had been ferried to Homa Bay where he was arrested by Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) for allegedly tarnishing the name of Deputy Inspector General of Police Eliud Lagat. He added that the intention was not to kill him, according to the reports.

On Monday, IPOA chairman Issack Hassan appeared to give credence to the reports when he suggested Mukhwana might have revealed the details to the media house as it he denied the agency shares witness statements with the media or the public.

“As IPOA, we do not release statements to the media or the public; it is not IPOA that published Mukhwana’s statement. It is probably himself,” he stated.

Omondi died on the night of June 7-8 after being found unconscious in his cell where he was being held alone and rushed to Mbagathi Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Police initially claimed he died from injuries he suffered after repeatedly hitting his head on the wall and was pronounced death on arrival at Mbagathi Hospital where he was rushed to.

However, an autopsy led by government pathologist Bernard Midia revealed that Ojwang’ died as a result of head injury due to blunt trauma and neck compression, while there were also multiple injuries spread across his body.

“The pattern of injuries spread all over the body of Ojwang points towards assault,” Midia stated.

He added that the specimens from the postmortem results have been shared with the relevant investigating agencies for action.

He explained that if he had done that, the pattern of the injuries on the head would be different.

“When I examined the injuries on Omondi’s head, he did not hit himself on the walls of the police cell. If he had, the patterns would have shown a frontal bleed, but the bleeds on the scalp were partially spread on the front of the head, the back, and the face. When we refer to the other injuries, then this is not self-inflicted injuries,” he explained.

The pathologist added that there were signs of struggle.

“We have found several injuries, and there were signs of struggle well described in the report for further investigations,” he stated.

“The signal by the police Inspector-General was incredible; it was a very poor cover-up attempt to say that Ojwang had hit his head on the wall. The CCTV had been interfered with. The man was tortured and killed,” Hassan said when he appeared before MPs.

Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja was forced to apologise when he appeared before MPs, saying he was misled by his juniors.