Revealed: Kevin Otieno’s daring mortuary act that put him in crosshairs of killer squad
Top row: Elijah Omeka, Fred Obare and Moses Nyachae. Bottom row: Frank Obegi, Joseph Njau and Alfred Odhiambo
In the Power series, James Patrick (Omari Hardwick) is an intelligent, ruthless drug dealer who fronts as a nightclub owner.
His main aim is to balance those two lives, as he completely avoids police capture and also works round the clock to manage shifting economic alliances.
This is the exact life that Mr Joseph Njau Ng’endo whose body was found in a forest on June 19, 2022, was leading.
By day, he was an ordinary politician keen to represent the Njiru ward electorate as their MCA and also an anti-drug campaigner in the vast Kasarani Sub-County.
But by night, authorities knew him as a drug trafficker. In February 2019, detectives arrested him in Westlands in possession of 5kg of heroin worth Sh15 million.
Inside pawpaw fruits
Mr Njau was arrested while he was on his way back to Nairobi from Kampala, Uganda where he allegedly bought the drugs and hid them inside pawpaw fruits.
Mr Joseph Njau Ngendo after his arrest in February 2019 with drugs haul in pawpaws.
He had an ongoing case at a Jomo Kenyatta International Airport court.
Fast-forward to June this year and Mr Njau’s body was found in the Kijabe forest alongside those of the “Kasarani three” – Frank Obegi, Elijah Omeke and Moses Nyachae.
When Mr Njau’s body was taken to the City Mortuary on Monday, June 20, 2022, his close friends and associates were worried about what might have happened to him, because his body was badly mutilated with signs of torture.
As a result, no one wanted to claim it –not even his family.
However, one man stood out from the rest, Mr Kevin Otieno, the man who was on September 23 shot 36 times in Mihang’o, Utawala, Nairobi County by gunmen who to date remain unknown despite them being captured in CCTV footage and a video as they sprayed bullets on him.
A screengrab from the video showing the execution of Kevin Otieno in Mihang’o, Nairobi County on September 23, 2022.
There have been no arrests as well to date.
“When everyone had chickened out and no one wanted to be seen at the forefront leading in the preparations of the burial, Mr Otieno went and picked his body from City mortuary and took it to Montezuma Funeral Home located along Mbagathi way in Lang’ata constituency in Nairobi County,” a close friend of the two, and who spoke in confidence due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Nation.
On a Jubilee ticket
It is at that time that Mr Otieno started raising concerns that he was receiving funny calls as he was being warned not to involve himself in the burial of Mr Njau who at the time was running for the Njiru Ward Representative seat on a Jubilee ticket.
The Nation has established that most of Mr Njau’s close friends and associates feared to attend his burial as they were unsure of what might have led to his death.
“Personally, I never went to the burial, most of the people who were close with Mr Njau completely avoided being seen at the function,” said our source.
It is Mr Otieno who even gave out some matatus that he owned –but whose ownership is put under the name of a close family member-- which ferried mourners to and from the burial.
It is since then that Mr Otieno changed his ways of operation and avoided public places, instead choosing to stay indoors.
A detective privy to the matter said that his calmness and decision to remain under dumbfounded even some people who had once called and threatened him.
To make it worse, he even changed his house and moved to a more quiet place in Mihang’o in Utawala and rented a one-bedroom house.
Two months ago, his vehicle, a Toyota Premio, was spotted in Mwiki, Kasarani and it was shot at eight times only to find that it was his brother Mr Alfred Odhiambo who was behind the wheel.
It remains unclear whether the people who were trailing him were the same gunmen who on Friday, September 23, 2022, at 3am went and abducted his brother from his home in Mwiki, Kasarani.
However, the gunmen who wore balaclavas and bulletproof vests were on a clear mission of eliminating him. This is because after abducting his brother, Mr Odhiambo, they went to the rented house of his girlfriend Ms Evelyn Nduku in a building known as China Ndogo Plaza in Mwiki, Kasarani.
The gunmen reportedly blindfolded Ms Nduku before leading her out of the building.
In possession of a video
The Nation is in possession of a video showing how she was bundled into a Land Cruiser by the gunmen, who were dressed in the same way as those who had picked Mr Odhiambo from his house earlier in the day.
After Ms Nduku was picked up from her home, the gunmen headed to Mihang’o in Utawala, where Otieno lived. In Utawala, Otieno was having lunch at Naivas Supermarket in the company of a woman. Soon after, they left.
The late Kevin Odhiambo (right) and his brother Alfred Odhiambo. Kevin was shot dead while his brother Alfred was abducted and is yet to be traced.
The gunmen who were in two vehicles –a double cabin grey Toyota Hilux and a white Land Cruiser-- then went to Utawala where they waylaid Mr Otieno and shot him 36 six times just 50- meters from his rented apartment.
From there, the gunmen proceeded to enjoy meals at an eatery at a petrol station in Njiru.
It is now three weeks since the incident happened and police officers are yet to issue any statement on what transpired and who were the men behind the killing.
However, Kayole Sub-county police boss Paul Wambugu in the past told Nation that they were investigating the gangland-style execution of Mr Otieno.
“Investigations are ongoing to establish the motive and apprehend the culprits,” he said.
Further investigations by the Nation reveal that the grey pickup, which is usually parked in the compound of one of the police stations in Nairobi, has now been driven away from there to an unknown location.
