Police are pursuing a love-triangle theory in the brutal killing of police Constable John Ogweno as new evidence reveals that the officer and his lover were entangled in a web of illicit affairs with multiple partners.
Preliminary investigations have indicated that Mr Ogweno, 28, and Corporal Carolyne Kangogo, 34, who was his lover and whose whereabouts are still unknown, had affairs with other people.
Police say Ms Kangogo, the main suspect in the murder, communicated on several occasions with people who are on police radar for various crimes.
The Nakuru County lead criminal investigations officer, Anthony Sunguti, said detectives have reason to believe that Mr Ogweno could have died at the hands of one or several people in the web.
Mr Ogweno, who was attached to the Nakuru Central Police Station, was found dead on Monday morning inside a car at the police houses in Kasarani, Nakuru, where he and Ms Kangogo lived.
The officer was found unresponsive in the driver’s seat of his car, whose engine was still running, said Nakuru East Deputy Sub-County Police Commander Phanton Analo.
Mr Analo noted that the officer was shot in the head and bled to death, an incident believed to have occurred on Monday at 2.30am.
Surprisingly, no one heard the shooting, though the murder occurred inside a police area, raising questions about how the assailants could have pulled off the killing in a place perceived to be highly guarded.
But Mr Sunguti did not rule out the possibility that the killing could have been abetted by rogue police officers.
He explained that preliminary investigations showed that three people in the love web could have met at the woman’s house in the Kasarani police houses, leading to an altercation.
“The woman is known to have several other men and we have gathered information that two of them met at her house on that night,” Mr Sunguti said.
“What we are yet to know is how they left the house only for Mr Ogweno to be killed inside his car.”
Ms Kangogo, who fled after the incident, is being pursued by the police, he said.
Mr Sunguti said police also recovered Ms Kangogo’s mobile phone near a fence where she is alleged to have passed through when she escaped.
Investigations of her phone, Mr Sunguti said, indicate that the woman has been in communication with people he said were powerful and dangerous.
“Some of the people she has been communicating with are senior officers and some dangerous criminals who are being pursued by the police,” he said.
He revealed that Ms Kangogo is married to a senior police officer attached to the maritime police department in Mombasa County and has two children aged seven and five.
One of her colleagues said Ms Kangogo had been involved in several dramas with her lovers, a majority of whom are male police officers.
“She is feared by many police officers as she is known to cause problems for her lovers. One day after she disagreed with one of her lovers she raised a false alarm and the man was beaten up by a mob,” the officer said.
“He was arrested and thrown in police cells before it was discovered that he was also an officer who had been framed.”
In another incident, the colleague said, Ms Kangogo beat up her husband in public when they disagreed on something.
Mr Ogweno, the Nation has established, had a bachelor’s degree in commerce and was transferred to Nakuru six months ago from Kericho County.
One of his senior colleagues said Mr Ogweno was an honest and disciplined officer who carried out his duties with diligence.
The colleague, however, regretted that Mr Ogweno failed to conduct his research on the woman before starting a relationship with her.
“He could have asked himself why nobody was interested in the woman who looked so beautiful,” said the officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The police said they are piecing together evidence to unmask the face of the third person who is said to have been present during the incident.
