Police investigating case of four men found dead in vehicle

Police are investigating circumstances under which four men aged 20 to 25 were found dead inside an abandoned vehicle near a garage in Kabete, Kiambu.

The bodies of the four, whose identities are yet to be established since they had no identification documents, phones or wallets, had head injuries, with blood oozing from the mouth. Police suspect that the men may were strangled or hit on their heads with a blunt object.

Two of the bodies were in a sitting position on the back seat while the other two were in the boot of the grey Toyota Succeed car, registration number KBY 611W.

The bodies were discovered almost 24 hours after the vehicle was parked by an unknown person who left the scene, outside Jack Apartments, about 50 metres from the Nairobi-Wangige junction, to make the vehicle look as if it had a mechanical problem.

Residents of nearby flats said the vehicle was probably parked there between 11pm on Tuesday and 3.30am on Wednesday without the knowledge of the watchmen at the garage and the apartments. On Thursday, the Nation could not find the watchmen who were on duty, as they only work at night.

“The car was probably parked within that period because the watchman said by the time he opened the gate for one of the late-comer tenants there was no parked car outside the gate,” said Ms Anne Njeri, a resident.

'PEEPED OUTSIDE'

She added: “He only saw the car at 3.30am when he peeped outside and thought it had been parked there either by a resident, a visitor or someone who needed the garage’s attention.”

When she noticed that the car had been in the same position the whole day, Ms Njeri called the owner of the garage and asked him why he had not attended to the car or even towed it.

“He told me he had not been contacted by anyone concerning any such vehicle,” said Ms Njeri. “I did not suspect anything, so I proceeded to buy groceries.”

When she returned at around 7.30pm Ms Njeri called on the workers at the garage, which is a few metres from the entrance to her house, to ask if they had seen anyone park the vehicle.

“We started being suspicious and, as we looked at the vehicle, one of the garage employees tried to open it but it was locked,” recalled another resident, Mr Michael Ngure. “So, he peeped through the tinted windows and then told us he had seen people inside.

“Since it was getting dark, we used phone flashlights to illuminate the car through the window and saw the bodies of the two people seated on the back seat. We called the chief, who called the police.”

Police had to break the rear windows of the car, and when they did, a pungent smell wafted out.

'OTHER BODIES'

Ms Njeri added: “The police realised that there were actually two other bodies in the boot.

“That’s when they called their colleagues.”

Gitaru Chief James Gitau said the young men, suspected to have been murdered, were unknown in the area.

“No one has come out to say they had a missing relative or friend,” said Mr Gitau. “We also tried contacting boda boda and matatu riders to try and see if they knew the abandoned car but they did not recognise it either.”

Mr Gitau asked anyone with information about a missing person to report to the police.

Central Regional Police Commander Larry Kieng’ said police were interrogating the owner of the vehicle.

He said the man, whom he could not name because investigations were under way, had gone to King’ero Police Station, where the vehicle was towed to, to report that before the incident, his car had been stolen from a parking lot.

“We have started investigating the matter and, soon, we may be able to establish the identities of the men and also arrest the murderers,” said Mr Kieng’.

The bodies were taken to the City Mortuary in Nairobi.

On Thursday, detectives took fingerprint from the bodies to help identify them. The vehicle was also dusted for fingerprints by officers from the Crime Scene Investigation Unit.