How Police bungled Muchai murder probe

Police may have bungled initial investigations into the killing of Kabete MP George Muchai after a car suspected to have been used in the attack was released back to the owner who had earlier been carjacked, without any forensic probe being undertaken.
Police have now pieced together what could be the most vital piece of information in the murder, after it emerged yesterday that a car earlier reported as carjacked may have been the one used by the killers.
Police sources revealed that on the morning Muchai and his three aides were killed on Nairobi’s Kenyatta Avenue, two women reported later at Kikuyu police station that they had been carjacked and their Toyota Spacio car stolen by thugs.
Police at the station reportedly told the women, who had not been harmed, to return the following day to check on the status of tracking their lost car. When the pair returned to the station on Sunday, they found that their car had been found abandoned at Ndeiya, Kiambu county.
Officers at the station, apparently not connecting the car to the Muchai murder, took a statement from the women and reportedly told them to take their car and go since it had been recovered intact and they were not hurt.
It was not subjected to finger print dusting. However, there was frantic activity on Monday when the report of carjacked the car reached the special team constituted to probe the Muchai murder, led by Nairobi County Criminal Investigations Officer (CCIO) Nicholas Kamwende and the head of Anti-Terrorism Police Unit Nyale Munga.
The two women were fetched to record fresh statements and their Toyota Spacio car was towed to Nairobi Area police station. In the fresh statements, police sources yesterday intimated to the People Daily that the women had been carjacked at Westlands when coming from an outing in the wee hours of Saturday morning and bundled into the boot of their car.
They are understood to have told police the car kept moving and stopping for long durations, before they heard it jolt, like it had knocked another car, then shortly after heard several gunshots. The ladies have also been reported by a source telling police that after the shooting, the car sped to some place and stopped.
One of the carjackers, who were wearing balaclavas in their faces, opened the boot and asked them if they wanted to alight. One of the women has said she saw familiar places on Baricho Road, particularly the famous K1 club. The carjacker then apparently changed his mind and banged the boot closed.
The women are said to have told police that the car again sped to another place that took about 30 to 40 minutes to reach. They have reportedly said they could hear the carjackers discussing the shooting but they did not comprehend what the subject was about. The boot was opened again and they were told to alight.
They reportedly found themselves in a forest as the thugs sped off. It was already morning and the two are said, by the source, to have managed to walk to a road from where they got help to reach Kikuyu police station, where they reported the matter, which was booked in the Occurrence Book without a lot of details.
Police are said to have picked a street man who apparently witnessed the shooting to identify the car and he reportedly confirmed the Toyota Spacio as the one he saw. Kamwende, the lead investigator, yesterday told People Daily: “Yes, some people have been picked here and there and a vehicle recovered in Ndeiya.
However, this does not lead us to the actual killers. We are still following some leads.” Police sources said crucial evidence may have disappeared after police at Kikuyu failed to glean forensic material from the car before releasing it.