Of collapsed cases and unanswered questions: Inside DCI Amin's troubled record

DCI boss Mohamed Amin. [Kelly Ayodi, Standard] For more than two weeks Kenyans have waited for answers after the Directorate of Criminal Investigations staged an arrest spectacle for four senior government officials before rolling television cameras. On this year's Good Friday eve, the DCI moved with dramatic speed, arresting senior government officials linked to an alleged Sh4.5 billion petroleum fraud. The arrests were conducted by DCI detectives on Thursday, April 2, 2026, with the suspects held at several stations, including Gigiri Police Station. The procurement was found to be in breach of the existing Government-to-Government (G-to-G) framework with international suppliers, which was designed to stabilize fuel prices. Reports indicated that detectives seized large amounts of cash of about Sh500 million. The swoop was televised. The convoy and handcuffs of the state officials were real. The press coverage was wall-to-wall and merciless. Senior officials were frogmarched past reporters in scenes that signalled, to many Kenyans, that serious accountability had finally arrived. But today, not a single charge sheet has been filed in court, for Principal Secretary Mohamed Liban, EPRA Director General Daniel Kiptoo, KPC Managing Director Joe Sang, and Ministry official Joseph Wafula, who were bundled into police vehicles. Their reputations were shredded on prime-time news and the front pages of every newspaper. The handcuffs were real. Yet they walk free but tainted, their names dragged through the mud by an investigation that, by all accounts, never existed in the first place. Director of Public Prosecutions says no file, or proposed charge sheet, or witness statement have formally been transmitted for prosecutorial review. At the centre of this rubble sits Director of Criminal Investigations boss, Mohamed Amin, the man President William Ruto appointed in October 2022 to be Kenya's hardest, sharpest investigative mind. Reached for comment, DCI boss Amin said investigations is complex and once it is complete, the file will be forwarded to DPP. "Many times, the public want the police to rush through investigations and when that is done, the file is forwarded to DPP. But the file forwarded to DPP is weak and can't sustain any charge. So, we end up with egg on our face." "This investigation is of significant magnitude and we need to conduct professional investigations devoid of emotions and perceptions," said Amin. He said once investigations are complete the file will be forwarded to the DPP. The man who, on assuming office, handed out his personal mobile number to the nation and promised a new dawn in Kenya's fight against complex crime. But nearly four years into his tenure, his record has become a subject of sharp national debate. Born on October 1, 1964, Amin reached the mandatory retirement age of 60 in October 2024. The National Police Service Commission quietly awarded him a two-year contract extension. Hi term has been defined by high-profile crackdowns, missteps, collapsed cases, vanished suspects, abductions, tortured civilians, institutional embarrassment and lingering questions that have gone unanswered for months, sometimes years. In July 2024, DCI Boss Amin stood before cameras and made a jaw-dropping announcement: his officers had arrested a serial killer one Collins Jumaisi Khalusha. The man had allegedly confessed to killing 42 women including his own wife between 2022 and the day of his arrest. "He confessed to have lured, killed and disposed of 42 female bodies at the dumping site, all murdered between 2022 and as recent as Thursday," Amin said at a press conference. The announcement triggered two immediate questions that DCI could not answer: how had 42 women been murdered over two years without police noticing, and who, exactly, had been arrested? Within hours, it emerged that the person paraded to the media as prime suspect was not Collins Jumaisi Khalusha after all. He was Jairus Onkundi Morwabe, an innocent Kenyan whose life was upended by a failure of basic identification. Amin was forced to issue a public admission on the mix-up that fuelled widespread theories of a cover-up. What happened next made things worse. Jumaisi, the actual suspect who was expected to face murder charges and had been detained in custody to enable DCI detectives escaped from Gigiri Police Station under circumstances that remain unexplained. Collins Jumaisi Khalusha (2nd R), 33, the main suspect in the Kware murders was escorted to the Kiambu Law Court in Kiambu on July 16, 2024. [AFP] Five officers, Corporal Ronald Babo and Constables Evans Kipkurui, Gerald Mutuku, Mollent Achieng, and Zachary Nyabuto who were arrested over allegation of aiding his escape were arraigned at Milimani Law Courts and granted personal bonds of Sh200,000 pending DCI investigations. DCI officers were tasked with investigating the escape from Amin's DCI's own station. Months later, no officer or suspect has been prosecuted. The files, sources say, remain at the DCI. And what followed under Amin's watch in the realm of abductions has been catastrophic. Rights groups and court records document a surge in abductions and enforced disappearances over the past three years, with many cases directly implicating the DCI. Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said at least 82 cases of abductions were recorded between June 2024 and December 2025. Many occurred in the aftermath of the nationwide Gen Z protests, when dozens of young activists vanished from streets, homes, and police facilities. Many have never been seen again. In December 2024, four men, Justus Mutumwa, Martin Mwau, Karani Mwema, and Stephen Mbisi Kavingo were abducted from Mlolongo, Machakos County. Then High Court Judge Chacha Mwita ordered Inspector General Douglas Kanja and DCI Boss Amin to personally produce the men in court. They could not. Mutumwa's body was found in Ruai in January 2025, bearing signs of torture. Martin Mwau was also found dead. The other two remain missing. On June 7, 2025, plain-clothes DCI officers arrested Albert Ojwang, a 31-year-old high school teacher and blogger who had written a blog post critical of a deputy IG Eliud Langat. They drove him over eight hours to Nairobi. He was confirmed dead the following morning at Central Police Station. An autopsy determined the cause of death as torture. The nationwide protests that erupted in response to his killing were met with live ammunition. His killing sparked nationwide protests, during which police reportedly killed at least 31 more people. Activist Aslam Longton, his brother Jamil, and Bob Njagi were abducted and held incommunicado for 32 days after participating in economic policy demonstrations. They were tortured during captivity. Another case that shocked the country was the abduction of two Indian nationals, Zulfiqar Ahmed Kidwai Khan and Mohammed Zaid Sami along with their taxi driver Nicodemus Mwania, on the night of July 22, 2022, remains one of the most damning unresolved cases on Amin's watch. The three men vanished days before the 2022 General Election. Their bodies were never recovered. Amin's office in the recent past has come under scrutiny over its perceived failure to adequately investigate the increasing incidents, including allegations involving opposition leaders and related political developments. Four months after goons and police officers stormed ACK Witima Church in Othaya on January 25, 2026, firing live rounds and lobbing teargas at worshippers during a service attended by former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, no arrests have followed. The case has stalled. A few weeks previously, Kenyans had witnessed the chaos that engulfed Kariobangi North PCEA Church on November 30, 2025, during a thanksgiving service attended by former Deputy President Gachagua. Seven suspects, Charles Otieno Opiyo, Wilson Okoth alias M.C. Otieno, Michael Mutunga Kavulunze, Brian Omondi Odhiambo alias "Bryo," Reggy Opiyo Otwole, Elisha Otieno Ochieng, and Gordon Odhiambo Onyango, were arrested within the Lucky Summer area in the immediate aftermath of the disturbances. The National Police Service, in a statement dated December 2, 2025, and signed by Director of Corporate Communication Mucher Nyaga, declared with characteristic confidence that all forms of criminality are dealt with firmly within the confines of the law, and urged Kenyans to share any information that could assist investigators. It was a promise that, like so many others issued under Amin's watch, has aged poorly. More than four months later, not one of the seven arrested suspects has been prosecuted. No trial date has been set. No charge sheet has been publicly filed. The men were arrested, named, photographed, and then, in a pattern that has become the defining signature of this DCI,quietly forgotten, their cases dissolving into the same institutional silence that has swallowed dozens of other investigations on Amin's watch. Lawyer, Esther Bitutu Kadiki, was arrested on May 5, 2025, in connection with the Sh1.49 billion Equity Bank heist, one of the country's 2024 most shocking financial crimes. The DCI told court it needed 21 days to "finalise investigations." More than eleven months later, there is no conclusion of the probe with no suspect in the matter including the mastermind has been charged in court yet. In March 2023, the DCI published photographs of suspects it claimed were linked to violence during Azimio demonstrations. The public identified, within hours, that several of the images had been taken in Burundi and that others were from Kenya but dated back to 2008 and 2015. The DCI issued an apology on Twitter, blaming members of the public for submitting old images. Legal observers pointed out that a premier investigative agency's digital forensic unit presumably exists precisely to prevent such "mix-ups." Senior lawyer Ndegwa Njiru has been withering in his assessment. "There is a worrying pattern of inaction and silence even where evidence appears to be overwhelming," he said. "When the prosecution fails to justify detention, or when a judge notes a lack of evidence, that is a direct reflection on the DCI's work. You cannot charge officers for murder if you cannot present a body or a coherent timeline." Kalonzo Musyoka has previously raised the alarm over the agency's pace. "It is unacceptable that agencies mandated to investigate crime appear to move with hesitation even when clear evidence has been placed before them," he said, adding that "justice loses meaning when investigative agencies appear to move selectively or at a snail's pace."

Of collapsed cases and unanswered questions: Inside DCI Amin's troubled record

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