Deputy President William Ruto (right) with John Chesang, the father of Kipyegon Kenei, during the departed officer's funeral service at Chemasis in Rongai, Nakuru County. [File]
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has asked the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in Nairobi to join investigations into the murder of a police officer attached to the office of the deputy president.
The detectives feel the case has been politicised and want the FBI to conduct a parallel investigation into how Sergeant Frank Kenei was murdered.
The need to widen the scope of investigations is because of the involvement of an American, who was one of the supposed suppliers of the Sh39.5 billion military hardware. Authorities have termed the deal fraudulent.
Koziowski Stanley Bruno, an American, is a director of Eco Advanced Technologies LLC, which was to get the tender to supply the arms for the Kenya Defence Forces. He and Mamdouh Mostafa Lofty helped the police arrest and charge former Sports Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa and three others over the fake arms deal.
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It is understood that DCI boss George Kinoti sought the help of FBI, citing politicisation of the probe so far.
“Kinoti wants an independent probe not just to vindicate his homicide detectives who have concluded it was murder, but also to get those behind it,” said a source.
According to preliminary investigations by homicide sleuths, Kenei was murdered by people known to him, and who later later stage-managed the scene to look like suicide.
Kinoti also faulted Kenei’s seniors at Harambee House Annex for not immediately inquiring about the officer’s whereabouts.
“There is no doubt it was a cold murder. The motive of cold murder is very clear. It was simply to safeguard, protect, insulate and or save the source from the adverse involvement and attendance consequences using the military procurement process in the most deceitful and fraudulent manner,” he said.
The killers placed a pistol on his chin and pulled the trigger. It is believed he was drugged first before he was killed elsewhere and body taken to his Imara Daima house.
Kenei was a marked man, as he had been scheduled to record a statement with the DCI on February 19 regarding the incident in which Echesa and his team visited the second floor of Harambee House Annex.
His death has put breaks on the probing of the visit, which police were investigating because he (Kenei) was the man in charge of security at the DP’s office that day.
His five junior colleagues have so far recorded statements with the DCI and claimed they were acting on instructions to clear the guests.
Kinoti said the involvement of Kenei in the complex activities of February 13, 2020, at Harambee House Annex, clearly showed he did not have a chance. “It is evident that throughout he was receiving instructions, or orders, or directions from a certain source,” said Kinoti.
He noted that Kenei was ready to record a statement over the fake deal, adding that the mobile phone Kenei was using was found to be in factory reset, and that the SIM card was still missing.
Sources said the officers, led by those from Homicide and Serious Crimes Unit, had identified nine persons of interest, who are likely to be quizzed. Head of Homicide Unit Martin Nyuguto declined to reveal details of those targeted.
