Three more suspects believed to have been involved in the murder of Molo activist Richard Otieno alias Molo president are expected to be presented to court today.
The three suspects Peter Oketch, alias DJ IO, Joseph Kihara Kariuki, alias Jose, and Evans Aseka Okututi will be presented to the court for custodial orders as the detectives continue with investigations to arrest more suspects believed to have been involved in the gruesome murder and bring them to book.
Oketch, Kihara, and Okututi were forensically connected to the crime by a crack team of detectives from the Homicide Investigations Bureau and the Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau (CRIB) who nabbed them.
According to a statement by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the three prime suspects were transported from Molo to Elburgon to carry out the heinous act.
The detectives revealed that following the incident, Peter Oketch and Joseph Kihara Kariuki fled to Majahida in Bariadi District, Tanzania, in an attempt to evade capture by the sleuths.
They returned to Kenya on Friday, February 21, 2025, after Tanzanian authorities closed in on them.
They were then nabbed by the CRIB detectives and are in custody as they await to appear before the Nakuru Chief Magistrate’s Court today.
This is the second set of suspects to be arrested in the gruesome murder of the Molo activist who was brutally killed on January 18, 2025.
The five, Geoffrey Mavado, John Ndegwa, Jorim Ngonga, Clinton Simantu, and Peter Mwaniki were arrested and arraigned in Court earlier this month but not charged until the investigations are over.
Nakuru Principal Magistrate Kipkurui Kibellion allowed the five to be detained at Kaptembwo Police Station until the investigation is completed.
The investigations team led by Peter Wachira from the Directorate of Criminal Investigation’s Homicide department had applied to detain the five for thirty days but were granted twenty-one days by the court.
The Inspector said the police will be conducting a DNA test and probing the two motorcycles they claim were used to ferry the suspects to and from the crime scene as they pursue the mastermind behind the murder.
The detectives told the court that they had vital information that may lead to the arrest of more suspects as they believed the five hitmen were paid to eliminate the vocal government critic.
Mavado Ndegwa and Ndonga are believed to have been involved directly in the murder while Simantu alia Muiruri and Mwaniki alias Pinchez are the bodaboda riders who ferried the hitmen.
In November last year, Mavado and Ndegwa were arrested and charged with assaulting the deceased and were sentenced to one-year probation.
Otieno, a vocal critic of the government was killed a few meters from his home mid-last month.
The murder sparked protests with the homicide detectives and Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau (CRIB) taking over the investigations.
The body of Otieno was transferred to Kericho following protests by Molo residents who stormed the Elburgon Sub-County Hospital where the body had been preserved and stashed into a plastic bag before they made a procession to Elburgon police station where they dumped it.
Before his untimely death, Otieno famously referred to as Molo president had reported being trailed by unknown people.
An autopsy conducted on his body led by the Chief government pathologist Johansen Odour in the presence of his family and the Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU) at the Kericho Referral Hospital Morgue revealed that the body had multiple slash wounds on the back and at the front area of the skull; which fractured the skull leading to excessive bleeding in the brain.
Read also:- Five suspects arrested over murder of Molo activist Richard Otieno
