India has been cooperating with Kenya in ongoing investigations into the disappearance of two of its citizens earlier this year.
According to India’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, India was closely following up on the case of the missing citizens identified as Zaid Sami Kidwai, 36, and Mohammad Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan, 48, and is comforting their families.
“We are following developments related to the case very closely and are also in touch with the affected Indian families. Our high commission is in touch with them,” the spokesperson told the media.
He added that due to the sensitivity of the matter, the Indian government has been holding a weekly press briefing to give updates on what is ongoing and any information it gets from the Kenyan government on the matter.
Mr Bagchi also said an Indian investigation team visited Nairobi in November and offered all possible help to the Kenyan investigators in efforts to find out what might have transpired on the day the two went missing.
He said the team from India met officials from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) during its three-day stay. It offered to help with DNA and forensic analysis.
The two Indians and Ms Ambreen Kidwai, 36, the wife of Mr Kidwai, were scheduled to leave Kenya on August 20, 2022, according to an affidavit filed at the High Court.
Ms Kidwai said in the affidavit that the three had frequented Kenya since February 2022 and were interested in visiting several parts of the country but the plans were cut short after they went missing on July 22, 2022.
They disappeared alongside their Kenyan taxi driver, Nicodemus Mwania.
“We even had a plan to travel to Maasai Mara, Amboseli, and Lamu,” the affidavit said.
Ms Kidwai narrated her experiences when she tried to report the matter to the police after her husband went silent and failed to turn up at a hotel room where they were staying on the night of July 22, 2022.
She said that on July 23, 2022 when she woke up and realised that her husband was nowhere to be found and his phone had been switched off, she decided to report him as a missing person at Parklands police station, but was turned away after being informed that 48 hours had not yet elapsed for the report to be made.
She then proceeded to the joint where they had left for the previous day at 10pm, located along Parklands Road, Westlands sub-county, and had a conversation with the management. She was shown CCTV footage that captured her husband, Mr Khan, and the taxi driver leaving the premises.
“The CCTV footage shown to me disclosed that my husband, the friend, and the driver left the bar at around 12:57am using a motor vehicle of registration number KCG 335E, a Toyota Fielder,” the affidavit further reveals.
The management then offered to assist her and together they went to Akila police station where they reported the incident of a missing car.
Before they left the station, they were informed that a car matching that description had been found abandoned on the Nairobi Expressway.
“We then visited Lang’ata police station and I was able to identify the motor vehicle. I was also taken to the spot where the vehicle was abandoned and I observed that there were skid marks on the road suggesting that another car had intercepted them while in motion,” she narrated.
A Kahawa court was informed through an affidavit by the Internal Affairs Unit (IAU) in the National Police Service (NPS) that the three were trailed, abducted, and killed inside the Aberdare Forest.
The investigating officer, Mr Michael Kirui, claimed that the killings were carried out by members of the disbanded Special Service Unit (SSU) within the DCI.
Eight police officers – Joseph Mwenda Mbaya, David Chepcheng Kipsoi, Stephen Luseno Matunda, Paul Njogu Muriithi, Simon Muhuga Gikonyo, Peter Muthee Gachiku, John Mwangi Kamau and Joseph Kamau Mbugua – are in custody in connection with the case.
The ninth officer, Francis Muendo Ndonye, was released on a Sh500,000 personal bond.
