- Those who were previously assigned to the case were transferred from DCI after loopholes were found in their report.
A set of new officers have taken over investigations into the mysterious death of the Deputy President William Ruto's guard Sergeant Kipyegon Kenei.
Those who were previously assigned to the case were transferred from DCI after loopholes were found in their report.
“There were plans to consider FBI but it was agreed there are other local officers who can do good investigations,” a key official, who is part of the investigating team at the DCI told the Star.
Kenei was a security guard at Ruto's office before he was found murdered in his Nairobi house during the investigations into the Sh 40 billion fake arms scandal.
The new investigations are supported by data retrieved from Kenei’s mobile.
“We have a new team in charge of the investigations and they have started fresh interrogation,” the officer added.
Three officers attached to Ruto’s office and Kenei’s father John Chesang were summoned last week to appear at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters.
Detectives wanted to understand Kenei’s last visit at their home in Rongai.
The new team of officers will also interrogate other officials in the arms deal scandal, who include top officers in the DP's office and the foreigners. The foreigners are being treated as witnesses in the case.
The summoning of the officials follows the analysis of data retrieved by detectives from Kenei's mobile phone. The detectives based at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters along Kiambu Road in Nairobi say the data had been erased from Kenei's phone.
Sources privy to the probe told the Star Kenei was supposed to be off duty when former Sports CS Rashid Echesa and other suspects in the scandal visited Ruto's office.
The detectives retrieved mobile phone numbers and other important information which they believe will help piece together Kenei’s mysterious death.
The information has allowed the detectives to narrow down their probe to key suspects who might have executed the murder.
“We are piecing together events from the statements, witnesses and what has been collected from the phone to understand how the crime was committed as well as anyone who took part,” an officer privy to investigations said.
“The data obtained includes the last calls, people who were close to him during that time and the details of the communications."
The data obtained has helped the officers, with the help of the Base Transceiver Stations and Triangulation, to establish the phone movements and what might have happened.
The DCI had said that suspects behind Kenei’s murder restored his phone to factory settings, removed the SIM card to delete Kenei's phone records in a bid to cover up the crime.
Kenei's Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp accounts were also deleted.
“Our colleague's murder is 100 per cent linked to the ongoing investigations. It was not a suicide as initially perceived but pure murder, well-executed and stage-managed,” DCI director George Kinoti had said in February.