Police look for clues on Dusit Hotel attackers

Sprawling Majengo slums within the outskirts of Nyeri town where one of the Dusit D2 complex terror suspects Farouk Gichungi grew up, January 17, 2019. [Mose Sammy, Standard]

Detectives have in the last two days aggressively hunted for clues in Kiambu County trying to understand the origins of the attackers.

A landlord, real estate agents and taxi drivers were grilled for over 12 hours on Wednesday as detectives tried to piece together details of the attack.

On Thursday, Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officers descended on villages in Kiambu County as they tried to establish the origins of one of the terrorists involved in the dusitD2 attack.

The officers, first led by Dagoretti DCIO Francis Wanjau, trooped to Ngecha village in Kiambu County looking for relatives of Eric Kinyanjui, a 26-year-old believed to have been among the attackers. 

Sources said the phone number associated with Kinyanjui had been working for some time after the attack.

The detectives also had Kinyanjui’s Identification Card.

Local Chief Leah Ngia, however, said that the family had relocated from the area many years ago and added that she did not personally know Kinyanjui.

“The family relocated many years ago first to Kitengela, Ruai and finally Riara,” Ms Ngia said.

Sh80,000 rent

Ngia said that it could be a case of where a forged ID was being used to implicate a wrong person.

The detectives found Kinyanjui’s grandmother at the compound, who directed them to Riara. 

A villager told The Standard that Kinyajui’s father visits her every Saturday.

Detectives arrived with a printout of Kinyanjui’s ID which showed the name, Eric Kinyanjui Munyi.

At Guango Estate, anti-terror police grilled the landlord in whose house Ali Salim Gichunge, believed to the mastermind of the attack, had rented.

The police combed the house trying to get Gichunge’s finger prints.

Gichunge also known as Farouk had settled on the estate due to its privacy after scouring the whole of Ruaka for such a house for a week.

He rejected some houses because they had the requirements to sign a lease agreement.

He had paid Sh120,000 of which Sh80,000 was two months’ rent deposit.

Sources said Gichunge had given the landlord a vacation notice dated January 6.

Others were questioned as a result of M-pesa transactions they had carried out with Gichunge.