Angry relatives confront police for failing to secure Juma’s car

There was drama at Nairobi’s Lee Funeral Home on Saturday when a senior police officer investigating the Thursday night murder of controversial businessman Jacob Juma admitted that it took detectives more than 20 hours to secure the vehicle he was killed in for forensic investigation.

In the presence of the Sunday Nation team, Mr Martin Nyuguto, a police superintendent in charge of the Homicide Unit at the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) was at pains to explain to charged family and friends of the late Mr Juma why it took detectives so long to secure the Mercedes Benz car the businessman was driving when he was gunned down.

Mr Nyuguto initially stated that the vehicle was secured at 3pm Friday, almost 18 hours after the cold blood murder near Lenana School. But pressed further by Mr Juma’s family and friends led by city businessman Jimmy Wanjigi, Mr Nyuguto admitted that the vehicle was in fact secured at 7 pm on Friday, almost 21 hours after the murder.

The admission by a man heading the investigations into the murder brought to the surface serious questions regarding the manner the killing has been handled so far.

A clearly agitated Mr Wanjigi wondered why the officers could not act fast to secure the car.

“It was already polluted, because many other people were there,” he said. Mr Nyuguto responded that the vehicle was properly secured.

“The first thing I did yesterday was to seal the vehicle. And even now it is sealed. But we have not documented it,” he said.

The revelation that DCI officers sealed the car late on Friday, and that they were yet to document its status, attracted even more fury from those present.

NEVER SEALED THE VEHICLE

“Even the car, my friend, the media has been all over it. If they’re taking photographs right inside, where is it sealed? You never sealed it. You tell us that you’re going to get spent cartridges from the inside. Really?” asked an angry relative.

Mr Nyuguto said detectives were called to investigate the matter at 3pm on Friday but officers who had arrived at the scene earlier had recorded their findings.
“We tried to seal whatever we found,” he said.

The senior officer, who is leading a team investigating the killing, said DCI investigators visited the scene of the shooting on Friday afternoon in an attempt to reconstruct the events.

“We drove there to search for a second time because we understand our colleagues who were there on Thursday night and early yesterday did not find the (spent) cartridge, according to what they told us,” he said.

Mr Juma’s relatives, including his widow Miriam Wairimu, who had gone to the mortuary to attend the businessman’s autopsy, also questioned why the detectives did not find a single cartridge from the scene.

They also questioned Mr Nyuguto on why it took police long to open investigations into the killing.

Questions were also raised why the vehicle was towed with the body inside before forensic investigations were done. The standard procedure would be for the scene of crime officers to take all the evidence before anything is moved or tampered with.

At some point Mr Nyuguto realised the Sunday Nation was recording the conversation and arrested the reporter while trying to confiscate his equipment. It took the intervention of friends and family members present to resolve the situation. However, the officer still threatened to take undisclosed action against our journalist.

 It was after the bitter standoff that the autopsy, conducted by government pathologist Dorothy Njeru, started at around 3.15 pm.

Mr Nyuguto appeared to make matters worse when he said that investigators would test the late businessman’s blood to establish whether he had been intoxicated with any substance that could have hindered his ability to drive.

“You find [that in] most of the incidents of this nature, somebody could have been drunk so that maybe when they’re caught, they don’t drive quickly or whatever,” he told the gathering.

He added: “We will also take the DNA so that in future, if you get anything that you want to compare whether it was within the scene or contact with your brother, we can have something to compare with it.”

Dr Njeru, the pathologist, told the gathering that included family members who had travelled from Bungoma County that the preliminary results would be released as soon as the post-mortem was over.

Speaking with the Sunday Nation as the autopsy went on, family spokesman Michael Juma, who is the deceased’s brother, questioned why police at the Karen station could not make an effort to contact Mr Juma’s family as soon as they learnt of the killing.

“There was no effort by anybody to give the family that distress call,” he said.

NO SPENT CATRIGES

“From the time of death to the time issues were coming out in the media, it is said that the body was taken to Karen police station for some time before it was taken to City mortuary. And by the time family members went to Karen police station to confirm, they said the spent cartridges could not be found in the vehicle or at the scene; and even at the police station,” he protested.

He said the family had met earlier on Saturday and settled on Saturday May 14 as the tentative burial date for Mr Juma. The burial will take place at his Mungore village in Bungoma county.

Bumula MP Boniface Otsiula, who said his rural home is barely 100 metres from Mr Juma’s residence in Bungoma, demanded that the government involves officers from the American Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).

“In order to allay any fears on what is being said, what I want to urge the government is that they must allow us a team of independent investigators, preferably the FBI, to come and team up with the local investigators; to be able to get the real truth as to what exactly happened,” he said.

The MP asked: “How could police leave the vehicle unsecured for over 24 hours? It means it has already been tampered with. How could they leave the vehicle unsecured?”

On Friday, DCI head Ndegwa Muhoro said the shooting was clearly murder.

“We can’t tell as yet what it is all about. But if nothing was stolen, that is an indication it was a hit. Whether they were hired (hit men) or not it fits description of a hit on the face value,” he said.

A police report filed from Karen police station showed two mobile phones, Sh6,500, various small amounts of foreign currency and “personal documents” were found in the car.

“I have given very clear instructions to the County CID officer to personally supervise this investigation so that we get to the people behind it,” Mr Muhoro said.

Assistant Inspector General of Police Nicholas Kamwende is Nairobi’s head of Criminal Investigations and has since taken charge of the probe.
Mr Muhoro also directed officers from the Homicide unit at DCI headquarters headed by Mr Nyuguto to join the investigation.

When the Nation visited the scene, we established that the vehicle had deviated from Ngong Road and taken a sharp tarmacked arc that leads to the newly built Southern bypass.

The scene was littered with blood stained rubber hand gloves that were left by officers who responded to the shooting. There was also fragments of a shattered windscreen.

On Saturday, Cord leader Raila Odinga claimed the controversial businessman was executed by a special police unit. Mr Odinga who spoke at the homecoming party of Kajiado Central MP Memusi Kanchori claimed the Flying Squad officers had hunted down Mr Juma and killed him on Thursday night.

He blamed the death on Mr Juma’s vocal stand against corruption, including asking questions on the Eurobond.

Mr Odinga, who was accompanied by Cord co-principals Kalonzo Musyoka and Moses Wetang’ula said that only highly trained officers like the Flying Squad personnel could commit such a crime and get away with it.

Mr Wetangula backed Mr Odinga’s claims, saying that the late Juma had confided in him two weeks ago at a restaurant in Karen that he was being targeted for assassination.

Mr Musyoka on his part expressed fears for his life, saying his official police bodyguard had been withdrawn recently.

Additional reporting by Julius Musungu