Policeman, son held over murder of lawyer in Athi River, their guns confiscated

Lawyer Robert Chesang who was killed at his house in Lukenya, Machakos County.

A senior policeman and his son were yesterday arrested in the murder investigation of a Nairobi lawyer.

Police said the officer, who is in charge of a police station in the city, was arrested after it was claimed the car used to ferry the killers to the house of Robert Chesang (pictured) in Lukenya, Machakos County, belonged to him.

Detectives from Athi River visited the police station and took away eight AK-47 rifles for ballistic tests as part of the investigation.

“We want to establish if any of the weapons were used in the murder. They (policeman and son) are prime suspects for now,” said an officer aware of the investigation.

The suspects are not related to the lawyer, police said, citing preliminary findings.

More suspects linked to the murder were being hunted yesterday.

Mr Chesang (pictured) was killed by gunmen in his house at Moke Gardens in broad daylight on February 17.

A postmortem showed he died out of profuse bleeding.

Police said they recovered seven spent cartridges of an AK-47 rifle at the scene of the murder. Two cartridges were found in the house and five outside the window.

A car said to have been used by the gunmen was detained at Athi River Police Station and two people found in it on Tuesday arrested.

They were said to have identified the car owner as the police officer.

Police say their colleague and his son had been seen driving in Athi River days before the attack.

Preliminary findings have shown that Chesang had expressed fears for his life and had not left his house for two days before his murder.

A guard on duty at the estate told police two men arrived there at about 12.30pm, held him hostage and demanded that he lead them to Chesang’s house.

They knocked at the door and Chesang peeped through the window. One of the gunmen shot him.

Chesang was said to have been alone in the house at the time.

The attackers ran away without stealing anything from the house. They tied up the guard and left him in a corner within the compound.