Missing car in Pakistani journalist shooting found; it's a Mercedes ML350, not Land Cruiser V8

Police shot at a Toyota Land Cruiser V8 (L), yet the vehicle reported missing was a Mercedes-Benz ML350 (R). [File, Standard]

The vehicle reported missing on Sunday, October 23 that, according to police records, resulted in the fatal shooting of Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif has been found.

The missing car was a white Mercedes-Benz ML350 of registration plate KDJ 700F.

The vehicle that Sharif was fatally shot in was a white Toyota Land Cruiser V8 of registration plate KDG 200M.

The Mercedes-Benz was found near Total Petrol Station at Kiserian in Kajiado County on Sunday, the day it was reported missing.

The owner of the vehicle, Douglas Wainaina, told police that he had parked it outside an electronics shop in Pangani, and that when he returned, the car was missing.

He'd left his son inside the vehicle.

Out of anxiety, Wainaina filed a vehicle theft report, leading to police officers in Starehe circulating the stolen property signal.

Preliminary investigations, that The Standard is privy to, have established that it was Wainaina's son, aged 26, who drove away with the car.

Police said the son switched off his phone after leaving Pangani, where the vehicle had been parked.

"He'd intermittently switch on his phone, with the signals indicating that he'd driven to Kajiado County," a Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officer handling the matter told The Standard in confidence.

Police further said that Wainaina's attempts to have his son speak to him were fruitless, prompting him to ask his wife to speak with their son.

According to Wainaina, their child enjoyed a cordial relationship with his mother.

It was then that the son told his mother that they shouldn't worry about a possible abduction, admitting he had driven away with his father's car.

The man's mother, thereafter, alerted her husband, Wainaina.

At the time, the vehicle had been spotted near an Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) in Kiserian. The vehicle would later be traced to Olepolos Hills.

The DCI officers in Starehe Sub-County, consequently, alerted their counterparts in Kajiado County.

It was during this tracking, that the Toyota Land Cruiser V8 carrying the Pakistani journalist and his kinsman, Kurame Ahmed, drove past a rudimentary roadblock on the Kiserian-Magadi Road.

Police said the two defied stop orders, resulting in the shooting that led to the death of Arshad Sharif.

Sharif's kinsman, who police identified as the deceased's brother, also sustained bullet injuries, and is receiving treatment at a hospital in Nairobi.

The vehicle that the victims were travelling in was towed to Kiserian Police Station, and the body of Sharif taken to Chiromo Mortuary.

Preliminary investigations indicate that by the time the Starehe police officers were calling their counterparts in Kiserian to alert them that there was no abduction or vehicle theft case as had earlier been suspected, the fatal shooting had already occurred.

Meanwhile, the son of the Mercedes-Benz owner has since been arrested and will be charged with unlawful use of his father's vehicle.

He's being held in custody at Pangani Police Station.

His father's car, the ML350, has also been impounded.