Kidnapped university student rescued

Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Headquarters along Kiambu Road on January 12th, 2023. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

A female university student who was kidnapped on January 26, 2023 was last night rescued by detectives after being held hostage for five days.

According the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), Daisy Chebet Barno, a fourth year student at Egerton University was kidnapped by three men in Kabarak, Nakuru County and taken to an unknown destination, leaving her family in anguish.

The DCI took to Twitter to narrate the rescue.

"Unknown to Daisy, her friend Faith Mwende who is also her course mate at the Nakuru town campus had conspired with her boyfriend and other thugs to kidnap Daisy and demand a ransom from her supposedly well-to-do family.

On the day of her kidnapping, Daisy had been invited for late lunch by Mwende's boyfriend Simon Akuteka, 39, who lives with his wife in Rwanda.

After being convinced that Mwende would be joining them later she obliged and got into Akuteka's car, which detectives later learnt belonged to a car hire agent based in Nairobi.

Once in the car, Akuteka drove towards Kabarak after excusing himself to pick a parcel. However, along the way he stopped the car suddenly and two men got into the vehicle.

The trio informed Daisy that she had been kidnapped and demanded for a ransom of Sh600,000 from Daisy's family.

They drove to Ruiru at around OJ restaurant where they took a 2 bedroomed airbnb and locked Daisy in one of the bedrooms. Mwende who had since joined them took the other bedroom where they made merry with her partner, after Daisy's family sent an initial Sh50,000.

Unknown to the thugs, detectives who had received a distress call from Daisy's family were closely monitoring their movements as they operated between Thika, Murang'a, Kajiado and Ruiru during the day, in a bid to outwit the officers.

But the sleuths based at the Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau went after the four with the stealth of a leopard and finally pounced on them last night at the apartment.

A brief altercation ensued as the sleuths introduced themselves to the thugs, after they defied orders to surrender and engaged the officers in a fistfight.

Following the successful raid also supported by detectives drawn from DCI Nakuru and Ruiru, all the four suspects were arrested and Daisy rescued.

Preliminary investigations have revealed that the main suspect Simon Akuteka is a fugitive who has several cases of stealing motor vehicles pending before court in Nairobi and Kisumu.

The second suspect John Mbau, 38, also has similar motor vehicle stealing cases pending before several courts, while the third Elijah Chege, 31, is a small time miscreant based at Witeithie, who was recently introduced to serious crimes.

Faith Mwende who conspired against her friend and course mate is also a guest of the state as detectives complete their investigations before arraigning the four in court.

One cellotape, a rope, assorted mobile phones, several sim cards and the identity card of the victim were recovered from the said suspects.

Meanwhile, Daisy's family is celebrating after being reunited with their daughter, after five days of mental anguish." Said the DCI.