“Our condolences to the family of the deceased. Investigations into the murder are underway.”
For many a year, that has been the opening line by Kenya’s top detectives whenever a murder has shocked the country to the core, only for the investigation file to end up in the already full cold cases pile.
September 9, 2025 was no different.
Kyalo Mbobu was a distinguished advocate, respected law lecturer and a devoted family man.
Mr Mbobu’s schedule on most days was akin to the sun in clear skies – rise, set and repeat the following day without surprise. By 6am, he was in his Town House office in the Nairobi city centre. By 6.30pm, he was back home in Karen to spend time with family.
Two men on a motorcycle exploited his predictable schedule and movements, attacking him at a dark and isolated section of Magadi road in Nairobi.
As he navigated a sharp bend, the pillion passenger on the motorcycle drew a gun and opened fire. Eight bullets struck Mr Mbobu, killing him on the spot.
“The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) commiserates with the family, friends and associates of lawyer Kyalo Mbobu who was shot in a drive by shooting incident that took place on 9th September along Magadi road…,” the DCI said in a statement the following day.
“The DCI is committed to ensuring that the perpetrators of this heinous act are brought to justice. Our investigators are working diligently, employing all available resources and expertise to piece together the events surrounding this incident… We are determined to provide the justice that lawyer Kyalo Mbobu and his loved ones deserve,” the statement read further.
Lawyer Kyalo Mbobu.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
In the next few days, eight people who had interacted, either on phone or in person, with Mr Mbobu hours before the murder were interrogated. Some were briefly detained.
Investigators combed through his work files and questioned employees. They dug into his loan history, which revealed debts he owed to several individuals and institutions, including shylocks.
The investigators analysed CCTV footage from the general Magadi road area that they could get their hands on.
But three months later the trail has gone cold, with fears that the investigation may now find its place in a cabinet with several other files dating back to March 2, 1975 when the body of trade unionist and politician Josiah Mwangi Kariuki was found near Ngong Hills.
While there were earlier suspicious deaths of prominent individuals like Pio Gama Pinto and Argwings Kodhek recorded in Kenya’s history, Mr Kariuki’s was the first undisputed assassination for which no plotter or participant ever saw the inside of a prison cell.
Just over 50 years after Mr Kariuki’s murder, the door on the cabinet of cold cases is coming off its hinges. Unresolved murders are not just a preserve of politicians and prominent businesspersons.
Still, those involving prominent individuals attract more attention.
Just three months after Mr Mbobu’s death, taxpayers risk paying the family of Bunty Bharat Kumar Shah Sh700 million in compensation for his murder by a group of 40 police officers eight years ago.
Mr Shah was at home in Westlands with his wife and five-months-old son when he heard a commotion in their compound. From his bedroom balcony Mr Shah, a licensed gun holder, shot twice in the air to scare the group away.
It turned out the group was made up of police officers, and they shot Mr Shah dead.
Police spokesman at the time George Kinoti issued an apology to the family, claiming that it was a security operation gone awry.
The operation, he claimed, stemmed from a tip-off to the effect that there was a group of people hiding in an unoccupied house along Peponi road, waiting to stage multiple attacks in Nairobi with weapons stored in the same place.
His family has filed a High Court petition seeking Sh700 million in damages for the businessman, who co-owned mattress maker Bobmil Industries, with the police admission as one of the limbs of the case.
In July, 2024 the High Court ordered Kenya to pay the family of Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif Sh10 million as compensation for his killing by police.
Mr Sharif was killed by police officers in Kajiado County as he rode in a Land Cruiser V8. Police claimed that someone in the vehicle shot at officers who had set up a roadblock, and that they fired back killing Mr Sharif.
The late Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif. He was shot dead at a police roadblock on the Nairobi-Magadi road.
Photo credit: Aamir Qureshi | AFP
A Pakistani government fact finding report held that Mr Sharif’s murder was planned and targeted. But to date, nobody has been charged with any offences linked to his death.
Mr Were had just left Parliament buildings that evening, and the shooters waited for his vehicle to get stuck in the traffic jam at the Nairobi Funeral Home roundabout before striking.
The pillion passenger got off, shot Mr Were several times, got back on the motorcycle, which then sped off.
Kasipul MP Charles Ong’ondo Were had publicly warned of threats to his life.
Photo credit: File | Nation
But in Mr Were’s assassination, investigations have birthed a murder trial.
William Imoli Shighali, Edwin Oduor Odhiambo, Ebel Ochieng alias Dave Calo, Dennis Sewe Manyasi and Allan Ogola Omondi have been denied bail pending further pre-trial directions, which the Kibera High Court will issue on January 26, 2026.
In 2024, IT specialist Saagar Panara was shot dead by men on a motorcycle as he drove into his Parklands home.
Mr Panara had two months earlier been stalked and threatened by a group of police officers. The officers first accused him of stealing an unidentified item, and a day later claimed that Mr Panara had links with a drug dealer.
On September 24, 2024 the gunmen trailed Mr Panara from Parklands Sports Club and attacked as he waited for the gate to his Kusi lane home to be opened.
The killers left leaflets insinuating that they were sent by someone who had a land dispute with the Panara family.
However, there is no public record of any such dispute, indicating that the leaflets were intended as a red herring. Nobody has been charged with Mr Panara’s murder to date.
Just like it was with Argwings Kodhek (1969), JM Kariuki (1975), Robert Ouko and Alexander Muge (1990), John Kaiser (2000), Oscar King’ara and John Paul Oulu (2009), Jacob Juma (2016), Kipyegon Kenei (2020) and several others, 2025 was still a year when people got away with murder.
