The prime suspect in the Eastleigh triple murders Hashim Dagane Muhumed.
A suspect in the triple murder in Eastleigh on October 21 who has been on the run is in police custody.
Mr Hashim Dagane Muhumed was arrested by officers in Eastleigh, Kamukunji sub-County in Nairobi on Sunday.
The suspect is believed to be behind the murders of Waris Daud, her 12-year-old daughter Nuseiba Dahir and her niece Amina Abdirashad, 23.
The late Waris Daud (left) and her niece, Amina Abdirashid Dhahir.
He was taken to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Headquarters where he was grilled over the murder of the trio.
"He was arrested in Eastleigh and is currently in police custody," said an officer privy to the ongoing investigations.
Authorities say the suspect is in the country illegally.
Criminal history and fake ID
Mr Muhumed is a former police officer who served in Ethiopia but was kicked out of the service after he was jailed for murder.
Immediately after he was released from jail in his home country, he settled in Nairobi where he has been working as a taxi driver. He had an expired interim driving license by the time of the suspected crime.
Detectives attached to the DCI are investigating how the suspect fraudulently acquired a Kenyan Identification Card.
He is alleged to be the driver of a Nissan Note of registration number KDQ 718Y that picked up the two slain girls from their apartment on the day they went missing.
“He was driving the Nissan Note car captured on CCTV cameras picking the victims from their Eastleigh home on October 21, 2024, hours before their bodies were discovered scattered at various locations,” the DCI said in a statement.
Details acquired by the Nation from the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) showed Mr Hashim had a six-month interim driving license issued on February 22, 2024. By the time he was alleged to have picked up the two girls, it had already expired.
Murder probe
A week ago, a man was arrested in Dhobley, Somalia by security agencies in a case of mistaken identity. Security agencies had believed that he was Mr Muhumed. He was arrested outside a salon where he was seated waiting for his wife.
However, he provided his identification and other documents and after verification, he was released.
He later travelled with his wife from Dhobley to Garissa County in Kenya where he released a video and briefed the public on what had transpired and that he had nothing to do with the murder of the trio.
Ms Daud’s body was found in the Kyumbi area of Machakos County while that of Nuseiba was found opposite Bahati Primary School in Kamukunji and that of Abdirashad was found along Mwambo Road in Parklands Area.
'Crime spree'
On the day the three were killed, detectives say, another woman narrowly escaped death after she reached out to her family who would later send Sh1 million to an Ethiopian account and she was set free by the killers.
“The woman quickly reached out to her family and informed them that her life was in danger. It is then that they quickly acted and paid some money to an international account,” a sleuth privy to the matter who spoke to the Nation in confidence said.
The officer said that they believed that the suspect was on a money-collecting spree and would ask his abductees to reach out to their close family members for money.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, detectives managed to recover a motor vehicle that was allegedly used by the suspect on the day of the murders.
The recovery of the vehicle was made after the officers went through a number of CCTV footage from Parklands and within Eastleigh which made them recognise the registration number of the car.
On the day the three were abducted, they spent most of their time in the Eastleigh area. They were also locked inside a room alongside the woman who was set free after her family members raised the money.
It is believed that the killer(s) first dumped the body of Nuseiba and then proceeded to Parklands where Abdirashad was dumped. They then proceeded to South C where they chopped off the hands of Daud and dumped her body to Kyumbi in Machakos County. From there the vehicle was driven and abandoned within Wakulima Market in Kamkunji.
Autopsy report
Government Pathologist Johansen Oduor conducted a post-mortem on the bodies of the three and he said that Nuseiba died of smothering which is blocking of the airway so that one cannot breathe. He also said that they suspected that the 12-year-old had been raped and samples had been taken for analysis.
Mr Oduor said Abdirashad had multiple stab wounds with one of the stab wounds entering the heart.
For Daud, the government pathologist said that she had her hands chopped off and she had serious injuries on the neck. She was also tortured before she passed away.
Already, the three have been laid to rest in a ceremony that took place at the Lang’ata Cemetery.
Daud had on the day left home in the morning informing her niece and daughter that she wanted to undergo some skin-care treatment at a facility located at the Business Bay Square (BBS) Mall.
The girls waited for their mother in vain and to make it worse, she was not picking their calls. It is then that the two made a decision to head to the facility and find out whether she was still there.
Police say that it is Daud’s phone that was in constant communication with that of her niece on the day the deaths occurred.
