13 DCI officers among 15 in court over disappearance of Kenyan man, two Indian nationals

Fifteen suspects, among them thirteen officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), were on Tuesday arraigned in connection with the disappearance of two Indian nationals and their Kenyan driver.

The group is implicated in the enforced disappearance of Mohamed Zaid Sami, Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan and taxi driver Nicodemus Mwania Mwange in July last year.

The 13 DCI officers are from the now-disbanded Special Services Unit (SSU) while one officer is from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and a Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) warden.

Appearing before Principal Magistrate Gideon Kiage at the Kahawa Law Courts, they were charged with abduction with intent to murder; conspiracy to commit a felony; subjecting a person to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment; and committing cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

The fifteen also faced charges of cooperating in the execution of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and forgery.

The public prosecutor said they opposed the release of the accused on bail and sought to have them detained pending the hearing of the case, “due to the extreme seriousness of enforced disappearances which constitutes an international crime, a violation of human rights amounting to a crime against humanity.”

“The DPP recognizes that the investigations into this matter are complex and I hereby direct the Inspector-General to inquire into the aspect of murder and torture as a Crime against Humanity under the International Crimes Act No. 16 of 2008,” the Office of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions said in a statement issued Tuesday.

The suspects will be detained at the Kiambu GK Prison pending a November 3 ruling on bond.

Mr Sami and Mr Khan are said to have arrived in Kenya in April 2022 to join the then deputy president William Ruto’s ICT campaign team ahead of the August 2022 General Election.

They went missing on July 25 after they were abducted outside the Ole Sereni Hotel in Nairobi.