The hearing of a case against 15 officers from the disbanded Special Services Unit (SSU) entered day two on Tuesday with the first witness telling the court that the accused were placed at the scene of crime.
Officer Kennedy Ndeto, who is part of the investigations teams and works with the Internal Affairs Unit, told Kahawa Law Courts Principal Magistrate Gedion Kiage that the accused persons were tracked from Mombasa Road to Aberdares Forest.
The 15 are accused of the abduction and disappearance of two Indian nationals; Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan and Mohammed Zaid Sami, and their taxi driver Nicodemus Mwania Mwange on diverse dates between July 22 and July 23, 2022, at Nairobi County.
The officers drawn from different units in the security and intelligence sector include Peter Muthee Gachiku, James Kibosek Tanuki, Joseph Kamau Mbugua, David Chepchieng Kipsoi, Joseph Mwenda Mbaya, John Mwangi Kamau, Hillary Limo Kipchumba, Stephen Luseno Matunda, Simon Muhuga Gikonyo, Paul Njogu Muriithi, Boniface Otieno Mtulla, Elikana Njeru Mugendi, and Fredrick Thuku Kamau.
Others are John Wanjiku Macharia and Michael Kiplangat Bett.
At the witness dock, Ndeto told the court that the tracking logs of the vehicle allegedly used by the accused persons showed that they entered Aberdares National Park through the treetops gate at 6:34 pm.
The investigating team tracked the same from the Old Nairobi area where the disbanded SSU offices were located and followed them to Aberdares.
"We established that the vehicles travelled up to the Aberdares forest," he said.
Ndeto also said they accessed the call data records of the accused persons which placed them in different areas of interest including the SSU Offices at Old Nairobi area, along the Nairobi- Nyeri road specifically at Muiga in Nyeri to Aberdares Nation Park.
He added that from the records, the former SSU officers were located at the scene of the alleged abduction at Southern Bypass Interchange near Ole Sereni Hotel.
The records also show that at some point, they were placed at KMA plaza in Upper Hill which houses eStudios where the two Indian victims were working.
Ndeto informed the court that there was no SSU office at the Aberdares and there was no matter of investigation ongoing at the area to justify the presence of the accused persons at the location.
At the same time, he said the first accused Muthee played the role of trailing the victims and that he was placed at the scene of the crime, an argument objected to by his lawyer Danstan Omari.
He went on to show that from the work ticket on the day of the alleged offence, Muthee was not driving the vehicle which is implicated in the case.
Omari further argued that KMA Plaza is not an isolated building, listing the many businesses in the building and the fact that several banks have their headquarters nearby.
He concluded that it could not have been strange to find the SSU officers there offering their protection services.
The prosecution witness said during their investigations, they travelled to India twice where the Indian legal department assisted with the probe.
He said on July 3, 2023, with another investigator, they travelled back to India to collect some 20 mobile exhibits they had taken there earlier.
They also picked the subsequent reports and flew back to Kenya on July 8, 2023, where they analysed the phone extraction reports.
Ndeto informed the court that they found a chat on a phone belonging to John Mwangi Kamau between him and Joseph Mwenda dated October 16, 2022.
A message received at 12:57 pm from Mwenda enquired if they had revisited the scene to clear it.
At 1:50 pm, a reply alleged to be by Mwangi read, "Tanki alienda".
Th court heard that 'Tanki' is James Kibosek Tanuki.
The communication took place after the former SSU officers were sent summons at the Internal Affairs Unit for interviews and statement recording.
They had been summoned on October 15, 2022.
During cross-examination, Lawyer Steve Ogolla of the defence team questioned the move and the integrity of the DNA samples collected in India saying that the evidence did not meet the threshold required.
The defence further poked holes into the witness's statement seeking to know why they needed to report the investigations to the president.
In response, Ndeto informed that the president had to be briefed on the incident because it was a sensitive security matter.
The court also heard that such is the normal procedure.
The hearing began on Monday when Ndeto took to the witness dock in the matter.
The prosecution, in their opening statement, gave the court a chronology of how the crime was allegedly planned and executed.
Led by Jalson Makori and Harrison Kiarie, the state also told the court that they would be relying on testimonies from 30 witnesses to prove the case against the accused persons.
In his witness of the first day of the hearing, Ndeto stated that during their investigations, they identified three vehicles that were believed to have been used in the trailing and subsequent abduction of the three victims.
He added that on October 6, 2022, led by lead investigator they visited Michele Gardens in South B where they located one of the vehicles in possession of Edward Kamau Wanjiku at the time of impounding it who upon interrogation introduced the owner.
The vehicle was booked at South B station.
He further told the court that they continued with the operation and located another vehicle at CIC Plaza.
Consequently, they dropped the car at Capitol Hill police station.
Ndeto informed the court that on October 19, 2022, as a team of investigators, they proceeded to Aberdare National Park in Nyeri where they conducted a search and collected exhibits which were forwarded to the government chemist at Kenyatta National Hospital.
He noted that their visit to Aberdare was informed by the vehicle tracking logs retrieved from the vehicle suspected to have been used in the crime as per the data retrieved from the National Treasury, the custodian of government-leased vehicles.
The hearing will continue on July 21, 2024.