•His car, a Land Rover Discovery KCK 997C, was found abandoned along Kimbo-Kiganjo Road, Juja on Thursday morning, about five minutes drive from Recce Squad headquarters.
•A team of more than 150 search members, searched through the coffee plantations as locals divers extended search into the dams to no avail.
Efforts to trace city gun enthusiast who went missing on Wednesday have been fruitless, with family now blaming police on slow pace of investigations.
Dafton Mwitiki is a civilian gun owner and a member of National Gun Owners Association.
Yesterday, his wife Betty, fighting back tears, said she last spoke with his husband on Wednesday night.
She called his brother the following morning on Thursday after her husband failed turn up home.
A missing person report was filed at Muthangari Police Station.
His car, a Land Rover Discovery KCK 997C, was found abandoned along Kimbo-Kiganjo Road, Juja on Thursday morning, about five minutes drive from Recce Squad headquarters.
Police dusted the car and pulled it to Juja Police Station. The doors were opened its contents inside had been tampered with.
Yesterday, journalists visited the scene, tracks of car tires are still visible on rough road, few steps from the main road where the car was found.
His colleagues from NGOA and police officers mounted a search on Thursday, combing bushes and looking for any signs of life without success.
The following day, more friends and relatives including his father John Mwitiki, who traveled from his rural home in Makueni, joined the search, which lasted the whole day.
A team of more than 150 search members, searched through the coffee plantations as locals divers extended search into the dams to no avail.
While speaking at the scene, NGOA vice chairman Sammy Onyango and a long-time friend of Mwitiki, called on police expedite investigations.
"We believe he is still alive. Whatever he might have done. It's not justified."
"From the cameras, we need to know how the vehicle arrived here and who was driving because it didn't just disappear and appear here," he said.
Onyango wants security guards from the nearby coffee farms questioned.
He described Mwitiki as jovial and 'a friend to everyone'. When journalists and family visited Juja Police Station yesterday, Juja DCIO Nzau Musangi was busy on other commitments and Su County Police Commander Dorothy Migarusha was not available.
His elder brother, Victor Mwitiki, said: "Given the sensitivity of the matter we want to appeal for your compassion and empathy and invite your prayers for safe return of Dafton."
"As at now the case remains classified as a missing person," he added. The statement said that Mwitiki had two sons aged nine and 11.
His brother said that he owns a tour company known Beyond The Wild Safaris and co-owns a hotel with a Chinese partner at Galana Plaza in Kilimani area.
His father described him as 'very very very charming', intelligent, a 'straightforward' son who lived a decent life.
He is a second born in a family of four boys.
The family maintained that their son has never been threatened saying that "we remain hopeful."
The Star understands that the family visited City Mortuary on Saturday but failed to get his body.
He was part of the Kenyan shooting team during IDPA Southern Nationals shooting competition in Touwsrivier Western Cape, South Africa in 2019.
He shot to fame after his photo with 2017 Starehe parliamentary aspirant Steve Mbogo posing with semi-automatic rifles during the Riverside Dusit D2 terror attack in January, 2019, went viral.
Mbogo later explained that he was a licensed gun owner and wanted to rescue workers "because I was in a position to help, given I have good knowledge on how to handle firearms and protect myself against such situations, I went in to help.”