NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 16- The prime suspect in the sexual assault of a woman in Nairobi Zacharia Nyaore Obadiah will remain in police custody for 10 days, pending the conclusion of the ongoing investigations.
The suspect was arrested on Monday at the border of Kenya and Tanzania, after escaping a police dragnet in his Mukuru slums home in Nairobi.
He was captured on a viral video assaulting the UN staff along Prof. Wangari Maathai Road in Nairobi, in an incident that sparked widespread condemnation.
When he appeared at the Milimani law courts in Nairobi, the suspect said he went into hiding due to panic.
This, he said was after his photo was shared by detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and circulated across mainstream media.
“Your honour, I was carrying a client through the road where the incident happened and after a while my photo was all over the media. I had to run away,” said Obadiah.
The DCI through state prosecutor Christine Ooko said the 10 days will allow police to conclude investigations into robbery with violence and sexual assault offences.
The victim, said to be a Zimbabwean, was sexually assaulted and also lost a phone worth Sh130,000.
Obadiah was nabbed at the Isibania border while trying to cross to Tanzania,
He is being held at the Gigiri police station with other suspects of the attack.
The investigating officer Lyvonne Mwanzia attached to DCI Gigiri police station asked the court to detain the suspect at the station to allow her to interrogate the suspect.
“I need time to interrogate the suspect, time to request for call data from service providers so that we can trace the movements of the suspect, and obtain and retrieve CCTV footages from Barabara Tano for forensic analysis at DCI headquarters imaging and photographic department,” said Mwanzia
The suspect appeared before principal Magistrate R.K Ondieki.
During the time, detectives said they will carry out forensic analysis on the suspect’s mobile phone at the cybercrime unit at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters.
Detectives are also looking for more suspects.
The incident occurred on March 4 but only went viral a few days later after a video emerged online.
The government is currently undertaking a raft of measures, in a bid to introduce radical reforms in the chaotic sector and weed out rogue boda boda operators.
Of the measures include establishing a digital register for all operators, to be run and managed by the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA).
The operators will thereafter be given a smart card, that can also be used as NHIF according to Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr. Fred Matiangi.
A countrywide police operation against rogue riders has since been suspended after claims of harassment.
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