Police want five more suspects arrested in connection with the murder of Kasipul MP Charles Ong'ondo Were, including his security guard, driver, and neighbor at the rural home, remanded in custody for 30 days to finalise investigations.
The investigation team describes the incident as “a well-orchestrated crime” planned by multiple people through several meetings in Nairobi and Homa Bay way before the day of the fatal shooting.
At the same time, documents filed in court on Thursday reveal that police are banking on CCTV footage at the Integrated Command, Control and Communication Center (IC3) and other privately installed cameras along the path leading to the murder scene to unmask the actual killer.
They are also banking on mobile phone triangulation, phones of persons of interest, interrogation of undisclosed witnesses, and quizzing of the nine suspects in custody to determine if there was a conspiracy to kill the MP.
“This crime was planned way before its execution with meetings within and outside Nairobi. Therefore, more investigations will be conducted in Nairobi and Homabay and other several counties, a process that will require more time,” says the case investigator, Inspector of Police Oliver Nabonwe.
The five suspects include the MP’s bodyguard and driver, Allan Ogola Omondi and Walter Owino Awino, respectively, and his neighbor in Kasipul, Homa Bay County, Ebel Ochieng alias Dave Calo.
5 suspects linked to the murder of Kasipul MP Charles Were appear in court
“Omondi and Awino were the MP’s bodyguard and driver before this unfortunate shooting. Preliminary investigations have revealed that they were in communication with some of the planners and executors of this crime before and after this fatal incident,” says the officer.
Other suspects are Edwin Oduor Odhiambo and Dennis Sewe Manyasi. They were all arrested yesterday in Nairobi’s Umoja Two estate and Nakuru.
Also arrested was businessman Philip Nahashon Aroko, who police said was a person of interest in the ongoing investigations, bringing the number of suspects to 10.
“Preliminary analysis of the evidence at hand has shown that there is a high likelihood that the respondents, jointly with others still at large, were involved in the planning and execution of the murder,” states investigator Nabonwe in a nine-page affidavit.
Trailed the MP from Parliament
According to the investigator, the assailants are believed to be Mr Odhiambo and Mr Manyasi, who trailed the MP from parliament on the evening of April 30 ahead of the shooting.
At Mr Odhiambo’s house in Mihang’o, Nairobi, investigators recovered two pistols with two magazines and nine bullets, five Airtel sim cards, and four mobile phones.
In the investigation, police intend to carry out a comparative forensic analysis of the bullet heads retrieved from the MP’s body following the autopsy and the firearms recovered from Mr Odhiambo.
It has also emerged that Mr Ochieng alias Dave Calo, who is a close neighbour to the MP at his rural home in Homa Bay, had threatened the MP before the fatal incident.
“Similarly, he has been adversely mentioned by some suspects who are already in custody as the person behind the planning and execution of the crime,” says the investigator.
A mourner carries the portrait of the late Kaspul Mp Charles Ong'ondo Were at the Consolata Shrine in Nairobi on Wednesday May 7, 2025 during his requiem mass. The late Were was shot dead in Nairobi by gunmen on a motorcycle in a suspected assassination attempt.
Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation
Apart from the detention order, police also want the court to allow them to confiscate mobile phones and SIM cards of the suspects for forensic analysis to find the MP’s killer and the motive.
“All the mobile phones and sim cards recovered from the suspects need to be subjected to forensic exploitation and analysis to obtain call data records to assist in the investigation,” says Mr Nabonwe.
“Through mobile phone triangulation and interrogation of witnesses, people of interest, and the suspects’ accomplices who are already in lawful custody, it has been revealed that all five suspects were in constant communication immediately before, during, and after the commission of the crime.
They were near the scenes of crime where Were’s car passed through, hence the need to conduct more investigations,” says Inspector Nabonwe in the court papers.
The four other suspects - William Imoli Shighali, Juma Ali Haikal, Douglas Muchiri Wambugu, and David Mihigo Kagame – were arrested last week and have been remanded for 30 days pending the conclusion of the investigations. Mr Haikal is an Administration Police officer, according to the investigators.
The widows of the late Kaspul MP Charles Ong’ondo Were, Anne (Right) and Margaret Were, at Consolata Shrine in Nairobi on Wednesday, May 7, 2025, during his Requiem Mass.
Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation
Witness description of suspects
MP Were was shot dead on April 30, 2025, in a suspected targeted assassination near the City Mortuary roundabout along Valley Road in Nairobi.
According to Inspector Nabonwe, a brief interrogation of the suspects revealed that they have crucial information that could unravel the murder and lead to further arrests.
“The investigation has identified more scenes of crime where it is believed that this murder was planned and orchestrated before the execution. These scenes need to be visited for documentation and retrieval of more evidence that will in turn be used in the interviewing and interrogation of all the respondents so far arrested,” says Mr Nabonwe.
Suspects linked to the murder of Kasipul MP Charles Were appear in court on May 8, 2025.
Photo credit: Billy Ogada | Nation Media Group
Some of the witnesses, whose statements have been recorded, gave physical descriptions that suit some of the suspects.
Mr Nabonwe wants the suspects remanded separately in Lang’ata, Gigiri, Pangani, Kiambu, and Embakasi police stations.
Meanwhile, businessman Philip Nahashon Aroko wants to be released on bond, saying police have been holding him without justification.
“Mr Aroko denies any knowledge of or involvement in the said offence and maintains that he has at all material times been willing and available to assist the investigative authorities in any lawful manner including the provision of statements, attendance for interviews or any other reasonable inquiry,” his lawyer Dansatn Omari says in the court documents.
The lawyer says his client is a law-abiding citizen with a longstanding reputation. Principal Magistrate Irene Gichohi is expected to make a ruling on the detention application tomorrow (Friday) at the JKIA law courts.
Body of Kasipul MP Ong'ondo Were's arrives in Homa Bay ahead of burial
