It is said Kenei was privy to details of ex-Sports minister Rashid Echesa’s February 13 visit to DP William Ruto’s Harambee House Annex office, where a fake firearms deal was allegedly signed.
Kinoti says contrary to DP William Ruto’s claim that Echesa spent at most 23 minutes at his office on February 13, the former CS and his foreign “delegation” used the Harambee House Annex office for their meeting that lasted 1 hour, 22 minutes and 59 seconds.
While showing CCTV footage on the day Echesa met the foreign “delegation” at the DP’s office, Kinoti said Kenei interacted freely with Echesa and his chief accomplice Daniel Omondi alias General Juma.
In one of the interactions, the surveillance camera recordings showed Kenei speaking on phone before handing the device over to General Juma; that happened at 8:58am on February 13.
Thirty-five minutes later, Echesa arrived at the DP’s office in a Range Rover vehicle of registration plate KCR 786H.
The ex-minister and his team, which comprised two men of Caucasian descent, thereafter accessed a boardroom via a VIP lift.
After 30 minutes, Echesa and his visitors left the DP’s office. It is alleged Echesa, in the meeting, attempted to convince his visitors that he was in a position to supply firearms worth Ksh39 billion.
At around 10:10am, Kenei was seen walking General Juma to the parking area, where Juma hopped on to his car and drove off.
Kinoti says besides Echesa and General Juma, two other Kenyans took part in the attempted fraud.
“All these, demonstrates the level of involvement of the deceased officer in the well-orchestrated fraud that lasted for 1 hour, 22 minutes and 59 seconds — as from 8:50am to 10:12 am on February 13, 2020,” said Kinoti in his statement Thursday.
The DCI boss stated that on February 18, when conducting investigations into the Ksh39 billion fake firearms deal, they summoned, for questioning, all police officers who were on duty on the day Echesa accessed Harambee House Annex.
On that day (February 18), Kinoti said, Kenei, among others, were assembled at the DCI headquarters on Kiambu Road, and directed to return for questioning the following day.
“On February 19, all the officers assembled at the DCI (headquarters) except the deceased and one officer who was said to have been bereaved. On the same day, the DCI officers investigating the matter tried to locate the deceased person in vain,” said Kinoti.
The DCI chief said it was strange that Kenei’s bosses did not inquire about his whereabouts despite the police officer failing to report to work on February 19.
Kinoti said that on the evening of February 18, a letter of reference number ODP/CS/01 was written to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) by Ken Osinde, the DP Ruto Chief of Staff, urging Hillary Mutyambai and his team to investigate the ten areas where security was breached at the Harambee House Annex on February 13. The letter, Kinoti said, was titled: Security Breach in Harambee Annex Building.
“The next day, February 19, another letter of reference number ODP/ADM.1/30/ [130] was written to the IGP. The second letter titled Harambee House Annex Investigations was more explicit that any officer found culpable should be arraigned in court the soonest possible. This was the same day that the deceased was expected at the DCI Hqs for statement recording and he never made it,” said Kinoti.
The top sleuth added that “a quick glance at the two letterheads clearly shows that they are different”.
Red flag No. 1
“The timing of the second letter is suspect as it detailed to officers found culpable while the first one was not. Could the source [of the second letter] have known that the person involved was no more? It is clear from the footage that the only officer who may have breached the security protocol was the deceased,” observed Kinoti.
Kenei was on February 20 found dead at his Villa Franca home in Imara Daima, Nairobi. Kinoti, however, suspects Kenei had been killed earlier — most likely, the night of February 18 after being paraded at the DCI Hqs.
“The deceased had on February 18 called a close friend and inquired to be guided into how statements are recorded, implying a willingness to record the same as directed by his superiors,” said Kinoti.
“There was an official statement of him having been missing on February 19, which begs the question, where was this information coming from, any OB number to support the same? Being a police officer, a signal ought to have been circulated, why didn’t any one visit his house bearing in mind the close proximity?” posed Kinoti.
Red flag No. 2
The DCI boss says expert analysis of the crime scene indicates Kenei was killed in a well-planned scheme whose end in mind was to appear like suicide.
“[On February 20, when Kenei was found dead], the deceased was wearing pyjamas, had no shoes. Reasonably, it shows that he arrived and on unlocking the padlock, entered the house, and as an armed police officer, instinctively, he ought to have locked or secured the door from inside before removing all his clothes, shoes, socks and [eventually] wear a pair of pyjamas. This psychologically depicts somebody who was ready to sleep. It is inconsistent with a person who came with an intention to commit suicide,” said Kinoti.
The DCI chief says Kenei’s bed was neatly spread at the time his body was found, therefore, indicating “he was standing when he removed his shoes”.
“Nothing explains why he could strain to do all this, avoiding an easier way of sitting and being comfortable to remove shoes and socks before changing into pyjamas,” observed Kinoti, adding: “This can only suggest that the bed, if there was any disturbance, was deliberately made after the murder.”
Red flag No. 3
Kinoti says it is unfathomable how Kenei “shot himself” without blood staining his bed, yet he was standing next to the bed, and, actually, thudded against the bed after the fatal shooting.
“[There was] no transfer stains, swipes or wipes on top of the bed cover,” he says.
Red flag No. 4
The DCI lead officer further questions how the firearm fell off Kenei’s hand without even a single droplet of blood staining the weapon.
“No back spatter (drops of blood) was visible on the firearm which has been confirmed as the firearm that fired the single shot that killed the deceased.”
Red flag No. 5
The DCI boss says there was extremely little or no visible blood on the floor that the firearm fell on, yet the gun “had been in 100 per cent contact with Kenei’s skin, and, therefore, blood must have splashed on it”.
“It (gun) was in contact [with the skin] during the shooting yet on visual examination, the firearm lacked blood ‘due to backward force of the bullet penetrating the body’.”
Red flag No. 6
Kinoti says the spent cartridge did not have remains of Kenei’s brain tissues, which, according to him, is extremely strange in the circumstances where someone kills himself by a firing a bullet through his head.
“The bullet defect was disassociated from brain tissue spatter. The concentration of the brain tissue spatter is some distance away from the position of the defects on the ceiling.”
Red flag No. 7
Kinoti wonders why Kenei bothered to “erase all call and text logs from his phone, yet suicide would shield him from facing the law”.
“The mobile phone the deceased person was using was found to be in factory reset and SIM card paired with the phone was and is still missing. Why bother to destroy evidence when intending to commit suicide?” poses Kinoti.
Red flag No. 8
The DCI chief says detectives from his office conducted a mock experiment using a gun similar to Kenei’s; they shot into the air to establish whether the resultant gun-sound could be heard by neighbours.
And the results of that experiment, was that neighbours heard gunshot sounds from the mock recreation of the scene.
“How could a gunshot kill someone without the neighbours hearing anything, and yet when a demo was conducted at the same location later, the gunshot sounds were very loud and strong, inescapable from being heard?” posed Kinoti.
Conclusion
Kinoti says based on the above red flags, “we can only decipher a stage-managed scene by determined cold-blood professional killers, thus the conclusion that the deceased was murdered”.
The DCI boss says investigations to unravel Kenei’s killers have commenced.
“The involvement of the deceased in the complex activities of February 13 at Harambee House Annex clearly shows he did not have a chance. It is evident that throughout, he was receiving instructions or orders or directions from a certain source. It is manifest that the stakes must be so high and adverse that it could be dangerous to expose the source,” says Kinoti.
Why Kenei was killed
The DCI boss states Kenei “had to die” so that the high-ranking official could be “protected, safeguarded, insulated and saved from the adverse involvement and attendance consequences using the country military procurement process in the most deceitful and fraudulent manner”.
There's no story that cannot be told. We cover the stories that others don't want to be told, we bring you all the news you need. If you have tips, exposes or any story you need to be told bluntly and all queries write to us [email protected] also find us on Telegram
