Eight SSU Officers To Be Detained For 21 Days

NAIROBI, Kenya Nov 10 – Eight officers from the disbanded Special Service Unit (SSU) will be detained for 21 days to allow the Police Internal Affairs Unit to complete investigations.

The Kahawa Law Courts Chief Magistrate Diana Mochache however released one officer who was the seventh respondent in the case on a bond of Sh500,000 and ordered him not to travel out of Nairobi and to avail himself to investigators whenever needed.

In her ruling, she noted that the seventh respondent adduced evidence that his signature was forged and that at the time he is alleged to have committed the crime he was in Makindu and had two alibis.

Mochache directed all nine officers to avail themselves for the extraction of DNA samples and to hand over their mobile phones for forensic examination.

The officers are accused of being behind the abduction and disappearance of two Indian nationals Mohammed Zaid Sami and Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan and their taxi driver Nicodemus Mwania along Mombasa Road on July 23.

When the defense team led by Lawyer Danstun Omari raised questions about the preservation of the sample arguing that they may be framed, Mochache ruled that the officers can procure the services of a pathologist at their own cost to be available during the process. The exercise should happen within the 21 days.

The case will be mentioned on December 1.