From left: Fr Francisco Antonio Chages Barbosa, Daniel Mbolu Musyoka and Sagar Panara. The three were murdered in Nairobi.
Many months after investigations into three high-profile murders in Nairobi were taken over by the homicide unit of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, the police are yet to find the killers or the motives for the executions.
These unresolved murders have kept up the pressure on DCI boss Mohammed Amin and Homicide Director Martin Nyuguto.
On September 25, last year, police in Parklands were informed of the gangland-style murder of Sagar Panara, a manager at an Information Technology firm.
The 36-year-old was shot dead at 9pm outside the gate to his house in Parklands estate.
Two men on a motorbike are said to have trailed Panara from a member’s club in Nairobi to his gate and fled after the shooting.
Unable to resolve the murder, Gigiri DCI officers handed over the case to homicide investigators at the DCI headquarters.
The investigators were hoping that CCTV footage, call data and statements by the family would shed light on the motive and killers of the businessman.
Leaflets found in Panara’s car after his shooting pointed to a land dispute over prime land in Narok County. But this lead did not yield any clues.
Another theory by investigators was that Panara could have been killed over a business deal gone sour.
This was after investigators were informed that a day before Panara was shot dead, his family had received death threats.
A severed goat head had been delivered to the office of another close family member at his office in Nairobi.
Police are also looking into the possibility that Panara could have been killed by people known to him who used the leaflets to divert attention.
A search of the company where Panara worked states that he was a manager at the IT solution firm. Panara had held this managerial position for 14 years according to the details published on the company website.
Five months after this investigation was taken over by the homicide investigators, there have been no fresh clues.
A source familiar with the investigation told Nation the investigators did not get crucial leads from the call records or information provided by the family.
Mr Nyuguto did not respond to calls and text messages on the status of investigations.
The murder of a Brazilian missionary whose burnt body was found in the boot of a car near Mihango Police Station in Embakasi on June 9, 2023, is also unresolved.
Police in Kayole opened investigations into the murder of Antonio Changes Barbosa who had been reported missing on June 7.
The investigation into the murder of Daniel Mbolu Musyoka, the Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission's officer in charge of Embakasi East, during elections in 2022, has also gone cold.
Musyoka, 53, had been reported missing on August 11, 2022, only for his body to be found on August 15 at the Amboseli National Park in Kajiado South Sub-County.
Musyoka’s sisters, Mary Mwikali and Ann Mboya, identified the body on August 16, 2022.
Musyoka served as the Returning Officer of Embakasi East Constituency in the August 9, 2022 General Election.
Four suspects including a person who was found with a mobile phone belonging to the slain man were arrested.
Three of the suspects repair phones in Nairobi's central business district.
The fourth suspect told police that he collected the phone along Mombasa Road on August 14, three days after Musyoka went missing.
The suspect took the phone to the phone fixers in Nairobi who formatted it and sold it to a woman in Kisii County.
Police said they traced the phone to the woman in Kisii Town and confiscated it.
The woman, who was spared arrest, said she had used the mobile phone for a month.
However, there has not been any breakthrough in the murder investigation that has dragged on for over two years.
A post-mortem examination on the body revealed that Musyoka was strangled.
