THE State House BMW attached to the security detail of the president has been found in Tororo Uganda and has been taken to the capital Kampala.
The search for the vehicle that went missing on Wednesday last week was extended to Uganda, after police arrested a key suspect in Bungoma.
A team of investigators from Interpol and the Flying Squad left Nairobi for Tororo, Uganda, where the vehicle is said to have been driven to after it was stolen in Nairobi last Wednesday.
At the same time, investigators have arrested a man believed to be a crucial suspect in the carjacking and theft of the vehicle used by police officers attached to the Presidential Escort unit.
Nelson Topicho was arrested at a hotel in Bungoma town on Monday night by a second team of investigators from Nairobi’s Flying Squad. Bungoma CID chief Peter Mabeya and Head of the Flying Squad Nyale Munga confirmed the arrest.
Mabeya said Topicho was in the company of a second suspect who escaped when police raided his hotel room in Bungoma. No weapon was found on Topicho.
The CID boss said Topicho would be brought back to Nairobi for further questioning. Another team of investigators from the same unit yesterday questioned Nakuru mechanic Aggrey Odhiambo, who was arrested at the weekend.
Odhiambo is accused of possession of a stolen vehicle that was found dismantled at his garage and also possession of a firearm. He denied the charges and was remanded at the request of the prosecutor, who told the court that the police intend to question him over the State House vehicle.
A source familiar with the investigations said police were convinced that Odhiambo was not linked to the theft of the State House vehicle, but was linked to other crimes.
In Nairobi, detectives at Kayole CID plan to question the BMW driver, Chief Inspector David Machui, afresh. Machui reported he was robbed of the car at his police lines home in Utawala.
Machui is required to explain the inconsistencies in his statements and that of five witnesses who claimed to have been with him at a bar in Utawala at the time he says he was robbed of the car.
Machui’s account is inconsistent with investigators’ findings. He claims that he was carjacked while leaving a kiosk where he had gone to buy cigarettes on his way home at around 9.30pm, but investigators have concluded that he may have been attacked long after midnight.
?According to Machui’s statement recorded at the Kayole police station, he left the Presidential Escort housing quarters at Highridge at 7pm and got to the Utawala shopping centre at around 8pm and parked the car outside a building 500 metres from his home.
He dashed into a kiosk to buy cigarettes and returned to the car, where he found four strangers leaning on the vehicle. There was a brief commotion when one of the four demanded Machui hand over the car keys, but the driver slapped him instead. At that point, three armed thugs emerged from the darkness, brandishing pistols and an AK-47. ?
Witnesses at the bar claim that Machui arrived at the pub at around 10pm and left shortly after midnight. Machui however claims to have been robbed of the car at around 9.30pm as he drove home. The criminals abandoned him near an AP camp in Embakasi at around 2am.
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