Inside the 11-day hunt for wanted boda boda operator over attack on diplomat

Zecharia Nyaore Obadiah, the prime suspect in the sexual assault of a female diplomat at the back of a police car at Milimani court on Tuesday, March 15, 2022. [Collins Kweyu, Standard]

The boda boda operator suspected of leading colleagues in assaulting a diplomat in Nairobi last week slipped through a police dragnet from Mukuru Kaiyaba.

Yesterday, sources familiar with the probe said Mr Zachariah Obadiah left a friend’s house in Mukuru last Thursday under the cover of darkness. He managed to evade detectives who had been camping at Mukuru and monitoring his phone and movement.

On March 7, DCI boss George Kinoti said Mr Obadiah escaped through a sewer line when police raided his house. From Mukuru, Mr Nyaora is believed to have used a hired motorbike to the city centre since the police had already impounded his motorcycle when they raided his house.

To evade arrest, Mr Nyaora is reported to have stopped communicating with his family in Nairobi until Saturday evening when he called using a different line not registered under his name.

Police say the suspect last Thursday left his hideout in Mukuru Kaiyaba and using a proxy managed to book a bus to Nakuru city.

In Nakuru, he is reported to have spent the night at a friend’s house on the town’s outskirts.

By then he had stopped wearing the pair of spectacles that would have made him identifiable by the public.

He also donned a new cap and a jacket which gave him a new look from the photos in the public domain.

On Saturday night, police said, Mr Nyaora booked another bus to Kisii and later left for Migori town where he spent the night in a lodging. On Monday morning, he left Migori for Sirare where he planned to cross into Tanzania.