Disturbed Kenyans resort to assassins in ruthless trade

Contract killing is today a thriving criminal enterprise in the country, with hitmen taking as little as Sh5,000 to kill or maim targets.

It has seen high profile deaths where individuals prefer to outsource services of professional killers, or at least those who pose as possessing such skills, to eliminate targets in brazen missions that have more often than not backfired terribly.

The death of Sharon Otieno, a Rongo University student, who was in a romantic relationship with Migori Governor Okoth Obado, and that of Maribel Kapolon, the daughter of Senior Resident Magistrate Caroline Kemei, are some of the most recent killings to have opened the lid on the rising cases of sponsored killings arising from deals, or love affairs, gone sour.

Mr Obado, who maintains that he is innocent, is expected to be arraigned in court on Monday to answer to murder charges.

Investigations by the Sunday Nation reveal an intricate network involving both rogue members of the police force and civilians in a thriving industry hitherto only popularised in Hollywood movies.

WEBSITE

In most cases, people who seek the services of hitmen have the intention of eliminating business partners or rivals, political enemies and lovers or spouses.

As proof of the growing demand for hired killers, several websites have been created to cater to clients' needs.

“Hire a killer in Kenya” is one such site. For a hit job, the website demands a commitment fee of Sh50,000.

“We have been in the business of contract killing for over five years, and are continuously revolutionising the field. We are pleased to offer you unprecedented expertise, highly competitive rates and a user-friendly approach to doing business.

"With our pioneering technology and new highly accessible website, taking out a contract on someone's life has never been easier,” the site boasts.

It also boasts of other specialised skills such as ensuring that no traceable evidence is left once the job is done. The Sunday Nation cannot, however, vouch for the authenticity of the website.

HOT SPOT

So far, Nairobi remains the main supplier of assassins for most of the hit jobs done in the city and other parts of the country.

Kosovo, Mathare, Githurai 44, Kayole, Dandora and Soweto slums in Nairobi continue to be prominent hiding spots for contract killers, police records show.

In one of the most recent cases, a suspected hitman was traced to Dandora. Police have also lost their lives in the hands of the brutal gangs.

Other recent cases of suspected killings by hitmen include that involving Ms Jane Muthoni, who is in court over claims that she hired thugs to eliminate her husband, Solomon Mwangi, then principal of Kiru Boys in Kiria-ini, Murang’a.

Joseph Njuguna, alias Karis, a criminal-turned-State-witness, allegedly confessed that he was contacted by a woman acquaintance he only identified as Damaris for a “well-paying job”. Ms Muthoni is herself a high school headteacher.

UNIT

Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet told the Sunday Nation that they were treating such cases as organised crime and that a special unit had been detailed to handle them.

Mr Boinnet said: “When a murder occurs we investigate it as such. It is murder, pure and simple. Whether it was organised by others, we investigate and deal with all those involved in it.”

DCI boss George Kinoti, under whose docket solving murders falls, has promised to ruthlessly and expeditiously deal with such cases, involving both the common citizenry and the mighty in the society.

The opposite of organised crime is “lone wolf” in security parlance. Here, the crime is committed by a single actor and experts say it is one of the most difficult forms to solve.

In 2013, for example, Faith Wairimu from Kasarani, Nairobi, stunned the country after she confessed in a court of law to contracting the services of hitmen to kill her husband of 15 years John Muthee Guama.

Her justification being that she feared Mr Guama would leave her for another woman.

In her scheme, she sought the help of people she thought were gangsters to execute her evil mission.

STING

The would-be killers, however, turned out to be undercover police officers. It resulted in her arrest.

“We assured Faith that we would do a clean hit,” one of the police officers told this writer then.

“She did not know that we were actually police officers and eased herself into the trap effortlessly. She requested that we leave no trace that could be used to incriminate any of us after killing her husband and we assured her that we would be absolutely professional about it.”

Faith agreed to pay the “killers” Sh200,000 for the job — Sh40,000 upfront and Sh160,000 after the hit.

Then they parted ways, the police going back to their station to monitor her, as she went back home to her husband, whom she hoped would be dead in a few days.

“Ours was a pretty delicate operation,” the police officer said. “We had to ensure that Faith does not in any way suspect us to be the good boys, and so, on the surface, we took every order she gave us. While at it, we had to ensure that Muthee was safe, so we started monitoring him as well.”

CRIMINALS

For the state-instigated hit jobs, police sources say there are always good reasons for that.

“Do you know that some of the cases you call extrajudicial killings are for the good of the state? The security apparatus does all manner of things to ensure that good citizens sleep soundly, including killing rogue elements,” a senior cop said.

Police have in the past blamed the Judiciary for granting bail to dangerous criminals, what may pass as an inadvertent excuse for some killings that have been linked to them.

There are many undocumented cases where, for one reason or the other, rogue police officers are contracted by civilians or hire out their guns to aide such assignments.

And given the fact that they are professionals, it is hard catching up with them as they rarely leave a trail of evidence.

Many are the cases when the same wayward officers have been caught hiring their guns to criminals.

ACCESSORIES

In January this year, a detective in charge of the police armoury in Kiambu County was arrested and charged with robbery on suspicion of hiring firearms to lawbreakers.

We were told that in cases where police rent out their guns, the agreement normally is that the thugs are not allowed to shoot.

It is for purely brandishing purposes and they spend as little as Sh3,500 per day. There are also licensed civilian gun holders who collude with criminals to carry out illegal activities.

Mr Richard Tuta, a Nairobi-based security expert, admits that there is an upsurge of cases of people hiring thugs to harm or kill potential targets lately.

He, however, says that there is no crime whose planners and executors cannot be discovered.

PROBE

For him, there is nothing like the perfect murder — just shoddy investigations.

“Forensic experts will tell you that any time there is interaction at a crime scene, the perpetrators must always introduce something and leave with something that can be traced back to them. It is called Locard’s Exchange principle,” he said.

Fraught with risks of backfiring on perpetrators, cases of kidnapping for ransom have also become brisk business. Experts argue that the vice thrives in a dysfunctional criminal justice system.

The situation is not made any easier by the ballooning joblessness among the youth that has made some vulnerable to the allure of easy money, a slippery path that has no point of return for the youths who have either ended up dead or in prison.