The new team of detectives investigating the killing of Kyalo Mbobu has written to his bankers seeking information on his financial activity, as they record statements from seven individuals who interacted with him before gunmen shot the lawyer dead on Magadi Road in Nairobi last Tuesday.
The seven include directors of a company that was embroiled in a court battle with Mr Mbobu, and are expected to give information that could possibly help unmask the lawyer’s killers.
At this point, the seven are neither suspects nor persons of interest, and are only recording statements on account of being the last people to interact with Mr Mbobu before his murder. Some of them met with Mr Mbobu in person; others spoke with him on the phone.
Lawyer Kyalo Mbobu.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
The DCI hopes that bank statements requested from lending institutions will shed more light on whether Mr Mbobu’s financial history may have provided a motive for the killers.
Two men riding on a motorcycle waited for Mr Mbobu, who was driving home alone last Tuesday, to stop his vehicle on Magadi Road before opening fire. Mr Mbobu was shot eight times. It is still unclear whether one or both men fired.
Police are awaiting results of a ballistics report on shell casings from the scene, and bullets that government pathologist Johansen Oduor retrieved from the lawyer’s body last week.
Last Friday, detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations’ Homicide unit, which has taken over the enquiry, visited Mr Mbobu’s office on the eighth floor of Town House on Kaunda Street and collected several documents they hope will provide clues to the murder.
The documents they are reviewing include a form in which Mr Mbobu committed to paying Sh97 million to a church-based Pan-African organisation he represented in a land transaction.
A detective familiar with the investigations yesterday told the Nation that on the fateful day, Mbobu had spoken to at least 15 people, including professional colleagues and friends.
“We hope that we will get information that he may have shared with any of them of possible fears to his life,” he said.
Lawyer Kyalo Mbobu was brutally shot dead by two assailants on a motorbike in an attack that detectives have ruled out as a robbery. The well-planned attack, which involved eight gunshots, suggests that it was a premeditated assassination.
Photo credit: Evans Habil, File | Nation
As part of their routine investigations, the homicide officers collected more CCTV footage from buildings in the city centre and traffic control cameras in the hope they would find clues about the getaway motorbike.
Separately, the investigators are waiting for a ballistic examination to confirm if the firearm used may have been used in other crimes. Investigators on Saturday night released three people who were in police custody over the murder.
One of those released is a friend, neighbour and exercise partner of Mr Mbobu. He held a meeting with the lawyer at Sagret Hotel along Jakaya Kikwete Road, Nairobi, just hours before the killers struck.
A Kanu politician and his nephew were also arrested early Friday morning but released after detectives established that they did not know or have any dealings with Mr Mbobu.
The two had a meeting of their own at Sagret Hotel on the same day. The politician is a friend of the man Mr Mbobu met at Sagret. The friend introduced the politician to Mr Mbobu, before they parted ways.
Police on Friday confiscated cash found during a search of the politician’s house. His lawyer, Musa Maulid, on the same day told the Nation that the funds were legitimate, and detectives would likely release them after corroborating the explanation in the politician’s recorded statement.
