Questions abound in MP’s murder probe

Police investigations into the shooting of Kabete MP George Muchai and his three aides in the centre of Nairobi appear to have degenerated into confusion and a farce of conflicting leaks.

Even though the shooting took place in the heart of the capital within sight of some of the country’s most sensitive and secure installations — Immigration headquarters in Nyayo House, a major intelligence installation on Loita street and the General Post Office, among others — no special effort seems to have been made to crack the case quickly.

Acting Inspector-General of Police Samuel Arachi and the Director of Criminal Investigations Ndegwa Muhoro have not provided an update on the case, though two police officers were killed in cold blood.

In almost all jurisdictions, police forces make a point of finding and bringing to justice criminals who kill police officers.

The investigation has no consistent method of releasing information to the public, instead relying on leaks which paint a picture of total confusion.

Detectives also appear to have no credible theory about what happened on the morning of Saturday, February 7 when Muchai was shot just opposite GPO.

For example, investigators are reported to have told a national daily that Mr Muchai was shot by carjackers driving a Toyota Spacio which they had taken from two women who were locked up in the boot the whole time.

Nairobi CID boss Nicholas Kawende told the Daily Nation about the arrest of a woman whose vehicle appeared on surveillance tapes of the period during which Muchai was killed.

On being interviewed the woman is said to have informed officers that she was carjacked at 11pm on Thursday night and dumped later on in Kikuyu.

The Muchai killing took place at 3am on Saturday morning.

The Toyota Spacio random carjacking theory has another confounding flaw. According to media accounts, the women whose car was allegedly used in the shooting while they were locked in the boot, told officers that they were later abandoned in the Kamandura area Limuru.

They drove to a nearby police station where they are said to have reported the carjacking.

According to this theory the police allowed them to drive away in this treasure trove of forensic evidence without so much as dusting for a fingerprint.

In any case, the Daily Nation could not find any report of a Toyota Spacio as having been stolen between Thursday and Saturday in the crime bulletin at Vigilance House, the police headquarters.

The alleged registration number of the Toyota Spacio given by police, KBE 464N, is that of a motorcycle registered to Piki Piki Ltd, according to the registry of motor vehicles.

Mr Justice Luka Kimaro, while sentencing three men to death for the 2008 murder of Embakasi MP Melitus Mugabe Were, congratulated the police for an exemplary investigation “and evidence so concrete leaving no doubt who killed Mr Were”.

Detectives applied the various investigative disciplines, including ballistics and biometrics, to find and have the perpetrators successfully prosecuted.

The same professionalism does not appear to have been applied in the Muchai case.

DID NOT REACT

Information from witnesses is also adding to the confusion. On the morning of the killings that sparked uproar in Parliament, witnesses said a white Toyota Probox, which appeared to have been trailing the MP’s vehicle, had rammed into the driver’s side after which a gunman walked out and shot the four occupants.

This raises questions over why the MP, who had a loaded and cocked pistol in his waistband and has in the past shot and an attacker, and his two police bodyguards, did not react when the gunman fired the four bullets that felled them. Initial reports indicated that the two officers’ firearms were stolen after the shooting.

According to police records, however, one of the two bodyguards, Constable Samwel Lekakeny, was not armed at all. Only Constable Samwel Kimathi had a Ceska pistol serial number G4726 loaded with 15 rounds of ammunition.

A letter has been sent to the Criminal Registry Office seeking to publicise the loss of the firearm in the next issue of the Kenya Police Gazette.

This, too, raises another question: Why was Constable Lekakeny not armed?

A security official told the Nation that the two officers should not have been crammed in one car together with the MP and his driver when there was another vehicle carrying his family.

According to him, the gunman who shot the MP and his aides operated as though he was not expecting a quick reaction from his victims.

Although he is said to have had two other accomplices, he executed the killings alone and only beckoned to them to collect a box from the car. This was also when Constable Kimathi’s gun was taken.

The accomplices took “an item that looked like a box,” according to an official statement by the Director of Criminal Investigations, Mr Ndegwa Muhoro, which was issued through the Interior Ministry’s spokesperson.

The police are yet to give a clear explanation about what was contained in the box, whose contents could help in determining whether the killing was a robbery or an assassination.

Could Mr Muchai have been carrying documents that contained vital information or large sums of money? If so, how many other people knew what was in it?

A team from the Nation which visited the scene of the attack on Kenyatta Avenue on Saturday morning reported that the MP’s car had two bullet holes on the windscreen while the back right window was shattered.

Did the two bullet holes on the windscreen imply that the occupants in the MP’s car were shot by someone standing in front of the car?

Only four spent bullet cartridges were found at the scene of the crime, which would appear to suggest that only four bullets were fired, raising even more questions:

Did the MP’s bodyguards ignore standard operating procedures in VIP protection? Why did they not respond by shooting back at the attacker(s)? Would a gangster have the audacity to stage such a brazen attack within the city centre patrolled by armed officers in an area with three police stations in the vicinity?