Jazz maestro Hellon in child kidnap drama

  George Owako, whistle blower speaks to the Standard in their Mombasa Road office 06-11/2014. Photo:George Mulala  

Police are investigating a child custody row bordering on alleged kidnapping, threats and falsified information.

At the centre of the probe is controversial jazz musician, Nimrod Joseph Onyango Omondi Hellon and David Owako; a man accusing the Finger of God Church founder of abducting his two sons.

Both men have vowed to fight to the bitter end in between allegations of witch-hunts and deceit.

The two friends now turned foes are embroiled in an unclear child custody dispute that played out at Hellon’s Karen home on November 4 after a police raid in a bid to rescue the allegedly ‘kidnapped’ children aged four and five.

 But the planned bust turned comical the moment officers led by Karen OCS Monica Mwarania entered Hellon’s compound.

Emerging from his maisonette, the diminutive Hellon, talking on his phone, headed straight to the OCS and handed her the phone saying, “Talk to the Children’s Officer over the case. I had reported the matter at the station.”

But the OCS declined to pick the phone and instead beckoned Owako and asked, “Is this the man?”

 A brief exchange ensued between Hellon and Mwarania, catching the Press and other officers by surprise.

 A supposed raid, with police armed to the teeth, was reduced to some sort of hilarious drama with Hellon taunteding Owako, and accusing him of being a pathological liar out to extort him.

 The ‘kidnapped’ children were not in the compound. They had allegedly been taken by the Children’s Department on September 22 after Hellon reported their father (Owako) for abandoning them.

Hellon allegedly reported the matter at the Karen Police Station under OB 22/9/2014, while Owako had believed all this time his sons were being held at Hellon’s residence. Meanwhile, the two men had been exchanging text messages over the state of the kids, sometimes cordially and at times with hostility, depending on their moods.

“I am here playing with your kids and my heart goes out to them and for (sic) their safety and well-being. I will look after them for (sic) this holiday season. Blessings,” reads one of the numerous messages Hellon allegedly sent to Owako.

But another message reads, “I have seen the message you sent Jathan. Come pick your kids.”

Jathan, according to Owako, is a close ally of Hellon who introduced him to the jazz musician and co-founder of the Placenta Party last August. Owako says he was a desperate man in need of urgent financial help, and Hellon’s assistance came in handy. Jathan coordinated a meeting at Hellon’s church in Ruiru.

Financial trouble

“After the sermon, we went for lunch at the pastor’s house in Karen,” he recalls, alleging that his financial woes began in 2007 when locals descended on his expansive farm, evicting him and all his workers because they were unhappy with his decision to contest the Muhoroni parliamentary seat on a PNU ticket.

 Owako reportedly fled to Nairobi and rented a house in Tassia estate from where he allegedly engaged in a small business hoping the legal battle to kick-out encroachers from his farm would end in his favour.

But upon returning from a trip abroad in May, his landlord allegedly kicked him out for defaulting on one month’s rent.

He moved to the tenancy tribunal which allegedly ruled that he be compensated Sh14 million – a verdict that has allegedly never been honoured, compounding Owako’s problems.

After explaining his tribulations, the saxophonist apparently gave Owako $400 (Sh35,000) to fetch his sons from Muhoroni and have them stay with him (Hellon) in Karen.

Things apparently took a turn for the worse when Hellon allegedly, as narrated by Owako, issued a directive to his workers not to allow Owako to step out of the gate.

Owako says his movements were initially not restricted and he would drive in and out of the compound, with Hellon’s wife ‘Kuyu’ allegedly giving him between Sh10,000 and Sh15,000 a day to spend. He claims that Hellon had promised to give him an influential position in his church.

“The embargo took me by surprise. I also started noticing strange happenings. I was afraid and started plotting to escape with my kids,” says Owako who declined to shed light on his marriage life.

He claims that he finally fled from Hellon’s compound after bribing and tricking three workers that he was going to wash the car.

“I was being fattened in that house for malicious reasons that I don’t understand and not out of compassion,” he claims.

Owako says that after escaping, strange people, including police officers, started trailing him, prompting him to make a report at the Lang’ata Police Station on November 3. A senior officer after listening to his story directed Owako to seek assistance at Karen police.