Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations on Wednesday arrested two workers at the home of missing former Treasury official Tom Fred Mokaya Osinde in Ngata, Nakuru County, as they intensified investigations into his disappearance.
At the same time the investigators also spent more than four hours, conducting a search and interrogating workers at the home that sits on a ten acres farm.
“We have conducted a thorough search of a section of the expansive 10-acres farm where Mr Mokaya’s residence stands.We covered about seven acres.This is part of the probe into the disappearance of the ex-Treasury official, “revealed Rongai sub county criminal investigations officer Ms Donatta Atieno.
“We also interrogated workers at the home and we have arrested two of them to further aid in the investigations. The two are currently held at the Menengai Police Station. So far we are following crucial leads and we are making great progress in the investigations, “added Ms Atieno.
She revealed that the suspects in custody are being investigated for the offence of abduction revealing that they were taken to court on Wednesday evening where police requested for custodial orders and were given 21 days to complete investigations before producing them again in court.
Investigators have also confiscated more than five mobile phones they took from the employees who were present when he went missing.
Ms Atieno said that the phones have since been taken for a forensic analysis to establish their communication with Mr Mokaya.
She said that they noted that two electricity switches in the upper upstairs of his house had been vandalised ,to establish whether they were spoiled before or after he went missing.
"His phone is not going through.It was switched off most probably in Nakuru hours after he left for his Nyamira home.Our agenda today was the probability of how we can get this person dead or alive. We are also looking if we can get a gravesite then we can get a breakthrough. We also looked at the septic tank," she said.
Mr Mokaya is a brother to the late ambassador Ken Osinde, the former Chief of Staff in the office of then Deputy President William Ruto (now President)
Osinde also served as Kenya’s ambassador to Germany, between 2010 and 2014, before serving as chief of staff at the Harambee House Annex. He died in a Nairobi Hospital in October 2021, after a brief illness.
According to Ms Atieno, they conducted the search in the homestead in pursuit of getting leads to assist in the ongoing investigations.
In a bid to trace Mr Mokaya’s whereabouts, the detectives further revealed that they have extended a search to his Ngata and Nyamira homes.
The search was conducted by a contingent of DCI officers drawn from the Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau(CRIB), a team of experts from Rift Valley region and Rongai sub county.
However, after the more than four hours’ search, nothing was recovered with the search postponed to Thursday morning.
“The victim is a public figure. Our core value is to protect life and property. That's why we are out to ensure that we are going to search and trace his whereabouts whether dead or alive until we get satisfied. Right now we cannot say he is dead," further stated the senior detective.
"We have several avenues, we have expert leads and we are still combining together with the assistance from officers from DCI headquarters, county and my office as the head of investigations. We assure the public and family that we are going to ensure that if at all there are people involved, they are brought to book," she said.
At the time Mr Mokaya went missing, according to his family, he was travelling from his Ngata residence in Nakuru to his rural home in Borabu, Nyamira County.
On June 22, a vandalised black Land Cruiser LC300 vehicle belonging to Mr Mokaya was found abandoned at the IIpashire along the Sikawa-Enoosaen road in Trans Mara West, Narok County.
The car’s number plate, battery and radio were missing, indicating that it had been vandalised.
Some documents were also found in the car and are now being used by detectives in the ongoing investigations in a bid to trace his whereabouts.
Trans Mara West sub-county police commander Jamlek Ngaruiya said, the car was found abandoned on the roadside on June 22, which was almost five days after he went missing.
Last week the family asked for help, urging the public or anyone privy to his whereabouts to contact them or file a report at the nearest police station.
