A portrait of Willis Ayieko, the Wells Fargo Human Resource Director whose mutilated body was found dumped in a shallow stream within Gem Constituency.
A suspect detained following the brutal murder of an official of a private security firm had just moved into his newly rented single-roomed house at Dandora Phase Four in Embakasi North sub-County, Nairobi.
Mr Victor Ouma Okoth was arrested on Monday in connection to the killing of Willis Ayieko, the Wells Fargo Human Resource director, whose body was found on October 23, three days after he went missing in Siaya.
On Friday, October 25, Mr Okoth approached the caretaker of the four-storey building located within Charity area in Dandora Phase Four. He had introduced himself as a teacher and asked to be shown one of the vacant houses, according to the caretaker, who only identified himself as John to conceal his identity.
The caretaker said the two haggled over the amount of rent considering there were still some six days to month end.
Mr Okoth had insisted on paying Sh4,000, being monthly rent until November 25, but after negotiations agreed to pay Sh5,550.
“However, he later agreed to pay Sh750 for the five days to month end, the Sh4,000 monthly rent and Sh800 for water deposit,” the caretaker told Nation.Africa on Tuesday.
Bought new furniture, household items
After the deal was sealed, Mr Okoth left and returned with new furniture.
When Nation.Africa visited the house on Tuesday, the windows did not have any curtains and one could clearly see the items inside.
The house, which appeared to have been ransacked, had a new five-by-six bed with an equally new mattress.
Other new items were a three-seater sofa-set, a table, a television set and a sub-hoofer with tall twin speakers.
Beside the bed were two new pairs of shoes and on the sofa-set seat was a purple briefcase that was full of clothes.
On the day he moved in, Mr Okoth had at some point been joined by his brother who lives in the neighborhood. He spent the evening in the house and left the following day, Saturday.
Return past midnight
The caretaker recalled the new tenant returned to the house past midnight on Sunday.
He called the caretaker to open the gate.
“I warned him never to get late again and that the gate is always closed by 11 pm. I only decided to open for him because he was still new in the neighborhood,” the caretaker said.
Asked to describe his appearance, the caretaker said Mr Okoth was slender, tall and dark in complexion.
On Monday, detectives attached to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) combed the vast Dandora area.
The officers were in three vehicles; a white Toyota Probox, a green MG6 GT with a sunroof and a proton X70 Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV). Investigators are drawn from the Homicide Unit, Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau (CRIB) and Operations.
Locals say they spotted the three vehicles in different parts of Dandora Phase Four but they did not know what their mission was.
The cars then parked outside the rental house where Mr Okoth had only lived for three days.
Mr Okoth was arrested at Terminus Area within Dandora and bundled into one of the three vehicles.
The officers then drove with him for hours around the area and then parked outside his newly rented apartment.
Detectives went into his house number B4 on the first floor of the building.
As they entered the house, they poured trash from a bin on the first floor, attracting the attention of the caretaker who raised the alarm.
A stand-off ensued as the locals and tenants demanded to know who the people were. After identifying themselves as police officers, they got into the room and ransacked it.
A senior police officer attached to Dandora Police Station told the Nation that the officers who arrested Mr Okoth did not inform them that they were in their jurisdiction which is always the norm.
“We were not aware that our colleagues from the DCI headquarters were around until late in the night when we received calls from concerned members of the public,” said the officer who spoke in confidence as he is not authorised to address the media.
When the officers forcefully gained entry into his house, they found a woman who locals say works at a local pub within Dandora. She was arrested alongside Mr Okoth.
One of the tenants says they say a lot of cash in the house, which the officers carted away.
According to DCI boss Mohamed Amin, the suspect is being held at Muthaiga Police Station as investigations into the matter continue.
“The suspect was placed at the scene of crime through forensic analysis,” Mr Amin said.
So far, at least two M-Pesa agents have been grilled in the probe aimed at unravelling events leading to Ayieko’s death.
This is after it emerged that his killers withdrew money from his mobile phone through mobile banking.
The M-Pesa agents will be key in the ongoing investigations as they are supposed to help the officers identify the people who withdrew money within Siaya County between October 19 and 20.
His firearm which also had 14 rounds of ammunition is yet to be found.
Postmortem report
On Tuesday, a postmortem examination on the body conducted by government pathologist Johansen Oduor concluded that Ayieko died of head injuries.
The autopsy was conducted at the Lee Funeral Home in Nairobi.
It has emerged that Ayieko was part of a Wells Fargo internal investigation into a Sh94 million heist involving the security firm in November 2023.
Some rogue staff of the private security made away with the cash that was on transit from a Quick Mart Supermarket to a bank along Kenyatta Avenue in Nairobi.
A family source said after the company leadership held crisis meetings following the theft, the internal investigation was launched. The DCI also conducted a separate criminal probe.
Investigators are relying on CCTV footage which captured two men parking the slain man’s orange Ford Ranger double-cab pickup by the roadside.
It is believed the people who abducted and murdered Ayieko are conversant with the vast Siaya as they only made rounds within the county and used feeder roads while avoiding the main highway.
Ayieko disappeared on Friday, October 18, after visiting a bereaved family in Muhanda, Nyamninia area in Gem Sub-County.
The following day he was scheduled to head to Kakamega County for another function with friends but he never made it there.
