Police Officer Found With a Taxi Whose Driver Was Killed

A family in Eldoret is seeking justice after they discovered the car stolen from their son when he was shot dead in a robbery is under the possession of a police officer.

Reuben Kibata, who was a taxi operator in Eldoret town, was shot dead and the car he was driving stolen on July 11 last year. Police investigations into the matter have not borne any fruit.

Mary Njoki, Kibata’s mother, said her son had completed the day’s work and was heading to his house in Acacia near Moi University’s School of Law at Annex area when he was confronted by unknown assailants. The assailants shot him on the chest and made away with his vehicle.

“It was around 9pm. I received a call via my son’s phone from a man who happened to have been near where he was shot. The man told me of the incident, though we found him dead on arrival at the scene,” she said.

The family has since then been trying to establish the killers in vain, with the local police telling them they are yet to make any viable lead every time they attempt to follow up on the matter.

Faded interest

“We recorded a statement at Kapsoya police station and were promised helped to determine the motive of my son’s murder, but the police’s interest on the matter faded immediately,” she told The Standard on Sunday on Thursday.

Benjamin Kamau, the owner of the stolen vehicle, says the police offered him little support. He has been depending on his friends to track the car.

His efforts bore fruit on Wednesday when a friend called to inform him that his car had been spotted in Salgaa, Nakuru County.

“I informed the Flying Squad at Eldoret that my car had been spotted in Salgaa and was heading to Eldoret. They told me they could not reach Salgaa and would wait for it at Annex area in Eldoret,” he said.

Kamau said he asked his friend who had identified the vehicle to trail it as he kept watch at Eldoret. He was  however surprised to realise that the Flying Squad officers who had positioned themselves at Annex had left the area.

“The police had promised to impound the vehicle at Annex but when the car approached, they were not there. They told me they had responded to a distress call after hearing gunshots,” he explained.

Joseph Macharia, who trailed the car from Salgaa, said they had to hire motorbike operators to help them stop the vehicle and arrest the suspect at Maili Nne area, only for the police to arrive at the scene later.

Macharia said the car, registration number KBL 919X Toyota NZE model, was intact and still had the last banking statements of its deceased driver among other possessions.

The suspect was then taken to Eldoret police station where to the astonishment of the deceased’s family members, he was an officer attached to Ngong police station.

Senior officer

Njoki says the police had by Thursday not recorded any statement because the suspect alleged that he had been given the vehicle by his colleague who is a senior officer at Ngong police station.

On Friday morning, Njoki’s family protested when the suspect was released from custody. They were  later  told that he was being taken to Nairobi so he could identify his colleague who had given him the car.

This is after the family spent the whole of Thursday waiting for the second suspect to travel from Nairobi to record a statement.

The transfer of the suspect, according to an insider, had been ignited by a call to a senior police officer at the Nairobi headquarters by a family member, asking for assistance in investigating the matter.

Eldoret West OCPD Ndung’u wa Ikonya confirmed that the suspect and the vehicle had been brought to the police station on Wednesday night.  It remained at the police station the whole day on Thursday.

“The suspect indeed is a police officer attached to Ngong’ and it is evident that the vehicle is the one that was stolen after the taxi driver was shot dead some time last year,” said Ndung’u.

Speaking to The Standard on Sunday on Friday, Mr Ndung’u, however, said the matter had been taken up by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations which had launched a probe earlier.

Source: Standard Digital News