Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) on Wednesday arrested Lake Basin Development Authority (LBDA) board member Ebel Ochieng Kalo as investigations into the murder of Kasipul MP Charles Ong’ondo Were gathered steam.
Kalo, who was actively involved in the UDA campaigns in the last election in Homabay was driven overnight to Nairobi where he is expected to be presented before the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) law courts this morning.
Detectives involved in the probe say they will seek to hold him for 30 days as they cast their net wider, hoping to arrest everyone who was involved in the murder.
Yesterday, it emerged that the MP’s killers were paid at least Sh800,000 in order to assassinate the MP in a well-choreographed scheme that involved his closest aides, including his driver and bodyguard.
The two aides who were working for the MP were arrested yesterday after the first suspect in the murder, William Emoli told detectives he had been paid Sh80,000 by the driver’s bodyguard to drop off undentified individuals near the location where Were was shot dead.
The MP’s bodyguard has been linked to the murder after a forensic analysis on his mobile phone showed that he was in contact with a newly registered number in the days leading to the murder and including on the day the MP was shot.
Also arrested yesterday is suspected gold fraudster Philip Aroko who was placed in custody after he presented himself for questioning at the Gigiri Police Station last night.
Aroko, who was accompanied by his lawyer, Danstan Omari, pleaded innocence.
“The situation that we are in is very unfortunate. I don’t want to talk about it because it’s under investigation, I want to leave it for the police to do their job. But they summoned me to come and I am here, if anybody has anything that they want to ask me I’ll be ready to answer,” said Aroko.
“But I want to tell the people of Homa Bay County that the politics in that county has been turned into madness, it is not politics, it is thuggery. I saw the Governor pushing so much for me to be called here, she is even making calls to the police for me to be called here to make a statement. She has achieved it now…I want to tell her that we’re changing the politics from thuggery to civilized politics in that constituency.”
He further explained, “Because those who fight and kill and maim people are employees of the county government of Homa Bay; they’re on her payroll, she has never talked about anything. But she has achieved this one for me to be here. I know the main reason is because of the burial.”
Detectives also recovered two firearms and shoes that resemble those worn by one of the suspects caught on CCTV cameras close to the area where the MP was spotted depositing cash at an M-Pesa shop in town.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen on Wednesday said investigations have linked some of the slain MP’s close associates to the legislator’s murder.
“It involved people who should have ordinarily taken care of the interests of the Member of Parliament. The government is committed to making sure that the perpetrators, some of who have been arrested and others who will be arrested soon, are brought to book,” said Mr Murkomen.
