City house yields gory secrets

Police are investigating claims that an apartment in the upmarket Kilimani area of Nairobi could have been used by kidnappers believed to have tortured and killed their victims in cold blood, even after receiving ransom from their families.

Police suspect that the four gangsters — one of them a woman in her thirties, a man of about the same age and two men in their twenties — also used house number C7 at Daykio Heights Apartments on Ole Odume Road as a hideout after committing crimes in other parts of the city.

When detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations raided the house last week, they found two M16 assault rifles and a Ceska pistol.

Preliminary investigations indicate that the US-made M16 rifles could have been smuggled into the country.

So far, at least five people have been questioned.

According to messages shared on social media, but which could not be independently verified, police also found silencers, a commercial mincer and numerous passports, an indication that some of the victims could have been lured to their deaths from abroad.

When police visited the house, they found fresh and dried blood splattered on the walls. The curtains also had blood stains.

Police officers, led by Dagoretti Sub-County DCI chief Joseph Ondoro, are investigating how the gang operated from the fourth floor of the apartment complex without raising suspicions.

Though investigations are at an advanced stage, the officers handling the case have been reluctant to comment on it, for fear this may jeopardise their work.

According to information circulated on WhatsApp, a room in the house had chains attached to the walls.

It is also believed that forensic experts removed the main drainage pipes from the property for analysis.

ROBBED AT GUNPOINT

A tenant living in one of the apartments told police that at one point, two men left apartment C7, accosted him and forced their way into his apartment, where they robbed him of Sh80,000 at gunpoint.

However, when the Nation visited Daykio Heights Apartments, the tenant could not be found and managers of the complex said he had moved out on Monday last week.

Other neighbours said they, at one time, heard a commotion in apartment C7 and shouted for help, prompting two armed men to leave in a hurry.

Records indicate that a man, identified only as Peter, and a woman in her mid-thirties had rented the apartment last month and were later joined by four other men.

A neighbour, who sought anonymity, told the Nation yesterday that the man who rented the house was hardly seen while the young men, in their early 20s, always kept indoors.

The woman would drive in and out occasionally but never interacted with anyone.