FBI, Scotland Yard may join hunt for Chris Msando’s killers
America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation and Britain’s Scotland Yard may be drafted into the investigation to unmask the killers of election technology manager Christopher Chege Msando.
That is if the government accepts the offer of help by the US and Britain on Monday evening.
US ambassador Robert F. Godec and British High Commissioner Nic Hailey condemned the killing and said they welcomed the government’s commitment to investigate the crime, adding: “We have offered our assistance in the investigation.”
The body of Mr Msando, stripped to his underwear, was identified on Monday at City Mortuary, three days after he was reported missing.
His left arm appeared broken and he had wounds.
TALLYING RESULTS
Mr Msando, a systems development manager, is reported to have played a key role in the management of computer systems for voter identification, transmission and tallying of results.
He had made a report to the police that his life was in danger.
The naked body of a woman found near his is yet to be identified. No one has come forward to claim it, possibly because her family is unaware that she has been killed.
Mortuary staff said Mr Msando’s body was taken to the City Mortuary at 11.20am on Saturday and booked as an unidentified African male.
It was taken to the mortuary by a vehicle from Kikuyu Police Station after it was discovered in a thicket in Nguriunditu area in Kikuyu.
Mr Msando’s disappearance was made public by his boss, Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Chairman Wafula Chebukati in a press statement on Sunday morning, moments after his wife, Elsa Auma, reported the same at the Embakasi Police Station.
LAST COMMUNICATION
In his statement, Mr Chebukati said the last communication from Mr Msando was in a mobile phone text to one of his colleagues at around 3am on Saturday.
He was supposed to attend a meeting that morning at Anniversary Towers.
“The SMS suggests that he was conscious and fully aware of his itinerary for that day,” Mr Chebukati said of the man who was recently appointed to act as IEBC’s Data Centre and Infrastructure manager. He had acted as the ICT director after Mr James Muhati was sent on a 30-day compulsory leave on May 27 after failing to cooperate with the audit department.
Mr Msando’s vehicle, a Land Rover Discovery 3, registration number KCB 262Q was found at the TRM Drive behind the Thika Road Mall.
Police towed the vehicle to the Kasarani Police Station at 1am.
Nairobi County Police Commander Japhet Koome said the vehicle had been dusted for fingerprints and that there was nothing out of the ordinary with the vehicle, which had been well parked by the road.
BLOCK OF FLATS
At 8am, police officers from the Special Crime Prevention Unit, Scene of Crime and the Flying Squad, led by its head, Mr Said Kiprotich, visited one of the block of flats nearby, where they spent the better part of the morning.
The Nation could not establish whether the officers entered any of the houses in the block.
The officers also interrogated a number of people, including the guards and caretakers of the block and neighbouring houses.
After the body was identified by the family on Monday morning, other family members, his colleagues, friends and bosses at IEBC arrived to view it.
Some relatives, overwhelmed by emotion, chased away some staff from IEBC, claiming that they were responsible for the murder of their relative.
The body had injuries to the hands, stomach, back of the head, wrist and neck.
An emotional Mr Chebukati, flanked by CEO Ezra Chiloba and commissioners, among them Dr Roselyn Akombe, said the commission was saddened by the murder of Mr Msando.
CAUSE OF DEATH
He termed the death as “murder” even as he agreed that a post-mortem had to be carried out to determine the cause of his death. “He had been tortured and we demand to know who killed him and why,” he said.
He demanded thorough investigations to find the killers and asked the government to provide security to IEBC employees, especially as the country heads to the General Election.
He, however, appealed for calm, as “this is the only way we can deliver free and fair election”.
He postponed a simulation that Mr Msando was supposed to conduct to demonstrate how results would be transmitted on August 8.
