Fifteen police officers have been officially charged before a Kahawa Law Court for the disappearance of two Indian individuals and their Kenyan taxi driver in the run up to last year’s elections.
The two had according to Ruto’s close aide Dennis Itumbi contributed immensely to the success of the presidential campaign.
The officers stood before the court and denied a total of seventeen charges, spanning from allegations of abduction to conspiracy to commit murder, cruel treatment, and forgery, among others.
The charges were brought against them following the prosecution’s completion of their miscellaneous application initiated last year. The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) reported that their investigations linked all of the accused to the mysterious disappearance of the three individuals, with the exception of Francis Muendo Ndonye, who was released unconditionally.
The accused officers include Chief Inspector Peter Muthee, Inspector James Kibosek, Corporals Joseph Kamau, David Chepcheng, Joseph Mwenda, John Mwangi, Hilary Limo, Constables Stephen Luseno, Simon Muhuga, Paul Njogu, Boniface Otieno, Elkana Njeru, Fredrick Thuku, John Wanjiku Macharia, and Warden Michael Kiplangat.
Appearing before Senior Principal Magistrate Boaz Ombewa, the seven officers, namely Muthee, Kibosek, Kamau, Chepcheng, Luseno, Muhuga, and Macharia, were charged with the first count of abducting two Indian men, Mohammed Zaid Sami Kidwai and Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan.
The charge alleges that on July 22 and 23 in Nairobi, these accused officers, with the intent to abduct, tracked and intercepted a vehicle carrying Mohammed, an Indian national, and subsequently abducted him or placed him in grave danger of murder.
In a similar vein, the seven officers faced an additional charge of abducting Nicodemus Mwange, who was driving the vehicle, with the same intention of wrongful abduction or danger to life.
The remaining fifteen officers were collectively charged with conspiring to commit the felony of abduction with the intent to murder Mohammed, Khan, and Mwange. Furthermore, it was alleged that John Macharia, a member of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), subjected the three victims to inhumane, cruel, and degrading treatment.
Chief Inspector Muthee, on his own, faced an additional charge of forging a work ticket for motor vehicle GKB 809U for July 2022, falsely attributing it to Francis Muendo Ndonye with the intent to deceive.
Muthee, Kamau, Chepcheng, Luseno, and Muhuga, all identified as public servants in the now-defunct Special Services Unit (SSU) of the DCI, were accused of committing cruel treatment to Mohammed and Khan by forcibly removing them from their vehicle and confining them at the Old Nairobi Area police headquarters SSU offices in Upper Hill, thereby causing their enforced disappearance. This occurred on July 23 last year along the Southern Bypass, near Ole Sereni hotel.
All fifteen accused individuals, still employed as civil servants, sought lenient bond terms through their legal representatives. They emphasized that they were admitted to free bonds in December of the previous year and had complied with the bail conditions.
The fifteenth accused, Warden Kiplangat, not initially involved in the miscellaneous application, voluntarily surrendered to the Operation Internal Affairs Unit and was granted a bond of Sh10,000.
In response to the defense’s plea for lenient bond terms, the prosecution contended that denying bail might be warranted, considering the gravity of the charges and the possibility of accused officers interfering with potential witnesses during court proceedings. The prosecution highlighted concerns about potential absconding from court proceedings as well.
