Former policeman seized in kidnap probe

In 2010, Joash Opiyo Jagero was dismissed from the police force after he was linked to the theft of Sh80 million from a bank.

And on Monday night, he was arrested on suspicion that he had been involved in the kidnapping of 15-year-old twin sisters, whose abductors were demanding Sh86 million in ransom.

During the night operation at Tajiri Estate in Matasia, Nairobi, the girls were rescued after being held in captivity for 11 days.

The victims, Ahwal Kaur Mahjan and Abhita Kaur Mahjan, were kidnapped as they were going to school in Ruiru.

The captors then demanded a ransom of Sh86 million from their father, Mr Tinu Mahajan, a Kenyan-Asian who runs the Mada Hotels chain of 11 hotels around East Africa, with nine in Kenya.

During the 2010 incident, Opiyo, then working as an Administration Police officer, was accused of escorting gangsters, who walked into a Co-operative Bank branch while posing as G4S workers and walked away with Sh80 million.

At the time, he denied involvement in the robbery, but admitted that he had given out his uniform and firearm to a colleague. He was later charged alongside three bank officials and a taxi driver.

UNFURNISHED HOUSE

Police on Tuesday said the former officer was arrested alongside eight other suspects in Matasia where they were found in a newly-built, but unfurnished house.

Opiyo is believed to have organised the kidnapping of 15-year-old twins along Grivellia Groove at Brookside, Westlands on October 3.

Police believe the kidnappers had been operating from the Kilimani office of one of the suspects identified as Steve Oduka. However, their victims were being held in the secluded three-bedroom house in Matasia.

When police raided the house, they found the kitchen littered with fresh food, while the victims’ room only had a mattress on the floor, a few empty medicine bottles and messages written by the children asking to be set free. One of the writings read: “I wanna go home.”

Following the arrests, police on Tuesday searched the houses of all the suspects for additional evidence.

When the girls were kidnapped, Opiyo is alleged to have been in an AP’s uniform. Police are trying to establish where he got it from.

On Monday, four other suspects who had been arrested on Monday night were charged in court over the kidnapping of the teenage girls.

Mr Albert Indumba Jirongo, Mr Simeon Mokamba Nyambane, Mr Bernard Waiti Gakuu and Mr Peter Njoroge Ngugi had appeared before Nairobi acting Senior Principal Magistrate Ellena Nderitu.

Their alleged accomplices were arrested later that night when police raided the Matasia house.

The head of Flying Squad Munga Nyale on Tuesday said that the house belonged a man identified as John Otieno, who shifted about a month ago.

Mr Otieno recorded a statement with the police before being released.

Neighbours on Tuesday said the kidnappers lived secretive lives.

“There was little movement except for the man and woman. On one or two occasions, I saw other men, but it was very rare. They kept to themselves,” he said.