Have you seen him? DCI makes public details of Roysambu killer

A screenshot of a CCTV footage that captured when Samuel Mugota was shot dead.

Investigations into the shooting of a man in Mirema Springs in Nairobi’s Roysambu neighbourhood last Monday took a dramatic twist yesterday after the DCI released a photo of a suspect in connection with the murder.

 DCI chief George Kinoti yesterday released the details of a suspect whom the investigators believe was involved in the shooting of 40-year-old Samuel Mugota last Monday.

 Kinoti made the revelation in a post on the DCI Facebook account.

Kinoti said the suspect was armed and dangerous and that investigations by the police revealed that he was responsible for the murder of Mugota.

 “The man is suspected to be in possession of a firearm that was snatched from a stupefied police officer, after a round of drinks at a popular joint in Mombasa, in November 2020,” the DCI said.

But the public appeal by Kinoti caused an online furore with some readers questioning the image of the suspect and that of the man captured on a leaked CCTV camera during the shooting.

CCTV footage seen by The Saturday Standard revealed that the shooting took place at 13.57 last Monday.

From the footage, the normally busy street appears almost empty with only the victim’s car driving by and a female pedestrian walking in the opposite direction.

Mugota’s silver grey Honda CRV is seen driving at a slow speed. The lone gunman is captured walking from the opposite direction.

The driver of the vehicle had lowered his window and suddenly a hail of bullets is sprayed into the car from the driver’s window.

The car slowed down and the lone gunman dressed in a blue cap, a matching blue coat, and a pair of jeans, walks away casually.

He boards a grey motor vehicle that seems to have been waiting for him barely five metres from the scene of the shooting.

There is no resemblance in appearance and even height between the man whose image the DCI released yesterday and the man captured on CCTV.

Yesterday, in what the DCI called the final part of tweets on Mugota, the faces of various women the man is said to have recruited were released.

Kinoti claimed he worked with over 50 women to stupefy revelers at popular drinking spots to fleece their accounts. Detectives say, Mugota had been arrested over 30 times in the past 11 years on fraud-related charges and had been in and out of courts.

“Most of them have been arrested before but Mugota always came to their aid by approaching the complainants and refunding them back their money,” said the Twitter thread.

Police in Kasarani have been conducting investigations into the shooting of Mugota. So far, five people among them his wife, a brother, and three people whose identity cards were found in Mugota’s car have recorded statements.

Kasarani DCI boss Vincent Kipkorir said they had made good progress with the investigations.

Kipkorir said investigators are seeking witnesses’ accounts and CCTV recordings to unravel the murder.

The investigation’s chief ruled out the possibility that security officers were involved in the shooting of the man. 

Police have also released to the public details of Mugota’s life in crime and named him the kingpin of a criminal racket that involved women who spike drinks of revelers in bars before stealing from them.

Police said Mugota who ended up with some of the stolen mobile phones and which, using his IT skills, he used to access bank accounts of individuals where he siphoned millions of shillings. He also accessed mobile money platforms using the captured phones.