Victor Cheruiyot Bett, the 23-year-old jobless but flashy Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) graduate who was reportedly abducted on March 18 by people posing as police officers in Juja town, Kiambu County.
Mr Bett resurfaced Saturday, telling close friends of close encounter with and taste of betrayal from people he thought were his best friends.
According to friends he reached out to on the phone yesterday, Bett claimed he would prefer a prison cell over abduction and promised to share the finer details of his ordeal once he settles.
“I have encountered and tasted betrayal from people I called friends. It is better to be hauled into prison than being abducted and being threatened with death every day,” a family friend who has known Mr Bett for many years and who has handled some of his ‘investment transactions’ told the Nation yesterday.
He requested that we don’t name him, claiming that unidentified people posing as friends to Mr Bett called demanding to know how long he had known Bett and expound on the nature of their relationship.
But the kidnapping of Mr Bett raises more questions than answers. Was he a victim of extortion? Was it a business deal gone sour? Had he fallen out with police amid claims that he may have been tired of extortion and had fallen out with rogue police officers?
Mr Bett’s father, Paul Mutai, told the Nation yesterday that he was elated to hear from his son who called to inform him that he was in Nairobi but never went into details of what transpired.
‘’Yes, my son called me yesterday night (Friday) and informed me he is safe. He never detailed what had happened to him as he called us through a friend’s number. But above all, we are happy and relieved just to hear his voice,’’ Mr Mutai added.
But the kicker here is that although the family claims to have spoken to Victor, police refuse to confirm whether Mr Bett has been found, more so because the family have not notified them about his whereabouts despite having made a missing person’s report at Juja Police Station under OB No. 74/19/3/24 at 18:58 hrs.
''The family has not notified us that their son has been found and as you may be aware they booked a missing report with us and until that happens, we won’t comment about the issue. There is also no record that he (Victor) had been booked at Juja Police Station previously for various offences,” Juja Sub-county police commander Samuel Mwaura told the Nation on phone.
The Nation also independently tried to reach Mr Bett but his mobile phones appear to have been switched. Our messages on WhatsApp also appear to be unread.
Mr Bett graduated last year from JKUAT main campus with a Bachelor of Commerce degree yet most of his family and friends say he was rich but has no known source of income.
But the hallmark of Mr Bett’s wealth given his age and appetite for pricey stuff is obvious from his fleet of high-end motor vehicles even after his father told the Nation he could not clearly say what his son does for a living.
Chalking up his fleet are a brand-new pearl white Mercedes Benz GLC 250 4matic, an Audi Q5, a Toyota Mark X that he recently sold and a Subaru Forester said to be his weekend favourite.
“My son told me he was in a business he had founded with friends but never told me what they dealt in. We used to support each other financially. Now that he is missing, I am on my way to Nairobi to find out more,” Mr Mutai told the Nation on phone a few days after his son went missing.
Yesterday, Mr Mutai was bubbly, energetic and more hopeful.
The people who kidnapped his son pulled him out of an entertainment spot where he was playing a game of pool, bundled him into a Subaru that was escorted by a double-cabin vehicle.
Three months before Mr Bett went missing, he was involved in a freak road accident in Suswa where his Mercedes Benz was written off.
Police say the car was valued at Sh6 million and that he was pursuing a claim from Jubilee Insurance. But even with this, a few days before he was kidnapped, he told the insurer that the original logbook had been stolen and had to swear an affidavit in order to get the duplicate to facilitate the payment.
By yesterday evening, the phone signal of Mr Bett showed he was in Nanyuki but had been switched off.
A young man with an appetite for fine things, Mr Bett loved to show off “his successes” on social media especially on TikTok where he posted videos of his flashy lifestyle either driving a Mercedes-Benz or visiting a palatial home that he was helping his father to build in his rural village back in Narok.
