Police make U-turn on Kenya killing suspects

Kampala- The police On Saturday retracted an earlier statement that some three suspects its personnel had arrested in northern Uganda en route to South Sudan were in any way connected to the killing of Kenya’s IEBC ICT manager, Chris Msando.
The Force instead said the trio were being held over an unrelated murder of another Kenyan national.

The Aswa River region police spokesperson, Mr Jimmy Patrick Okema, had indicated to Daily Monitor on Friday that the police had arrested three suspects in connection with the killing of Msando, but Police spokesman Asan Kasingye yesterday retracted his junior’s assertion.

Mr Kasingye said the suspects in police custody were picked up in connection with an ambush that left a Kenyan national identified as Maurice Macharia dead and the circumstances are in no way related to the gruesome killing of Mr Msando.

“An engineer working with SS Mehta was driving with his father called Maurice Macharia. People came and shot at them three times. The engineer did not die but the father died. The attackers stole the car, passed Malaba but they were arrested in Pabbo [Amuru District],” Mr Kasingye said. He also indicated that he had verified his information with Interpol Kenya and the Police’s Flying Squad unit.
Mr Okema had explicitly stated that the arrests in Gulu District were related to Mr Msando’s death. “You know on Monday, Msando was killed in Kenya, its believed that the vehicle could be for killers, but I still don’t have all the details may be Interpol will give all the details,” Mr Okema had stated.

The suspects have been identified as Mr Mathew Butia, a Kenyan, Mr Joseph Okongo, and Moses Goloba, both Ugandans. He said the vehicle they intercepted originally had a Kenyan registration plates KCJ 672V, adding that the suspects replaced it with a Ugandan registration plate in Tororo District.
Msando went missing on Friday last week and his body was discovered dumped together with that of 21-year-old Carol Ngumbu in a forest in a Nairobi suburb on Saturday.

The killing of Msando has served to whip up tensions in a tightly contested election with polls indicating that incumbent president Uhuru Kenyatta running neck and neck with his main challenger Raila Odinga.