How fugitive Cheruiyot chose his city hide-outs with a detailed eye

Yesterday, we traced the last steps in the life of Daniel Kiptum Cheruiyot, the deadly but soft-spoken criminal who lied to everyone, from his family to his victims. Today, our writer, DOMINIC WABALA looks at the meticulous care with which Cheruiyot chose his hideouts in the city, and how the man whose exploits left a trail of broken hearts and deaths was finally gunned down.

For a man on the "most wanted" list of the police, Daniel Kiptum Cheruiyot had meticulously chosen his hideout: an ideal spot in the city’s sprawling Zimmerman Estate. 

And the two-bedroom house, located in a swampy area favoured by few, has all the things a fugitive would need.

Only a few metres from the Deliverance Church, and tucked away in a secluded part of the vast estate, the house has a high perimeter wall ringed with broken glass. It is less than 200 metres away from the busy Thika Highway, and boasts burglar proof doors and windows.

Sandwiched between two houses, a passer-by has no view of Cheruiyot’s den, let alone the activities of its residents. The house’s backyard is, however, not barricaded with a wall like the front, and offers a possible escape route to the highway.

Cheruiyot rarely opened his gate to anyone, be it his landlord or the nearest woman neighbour, who sought anonymity for security reasons.

He was always on the move, and sparingly furnished his houses. In Zimmerman, he only had a red five seater sofa set, a black coffee table and a single bed.

The neighbour revealed that Cheruiyot never opened the gate for anyone, unless they had been invited. If there was a persistent knocking at his gate, he would leave the house via the rear door, then come back later, after whoever had been knocking had left.

According to one resident, Cheruiyot hardly socialised with his neighbours, nor did he invite them into the house. However, some of his accomplices would visit him in the day and leave after a brief stay.

He would only leave the house at night and come back the following day, but his neighbours saw no reason to suspect him.

Those who saw or met him during his four-month stay in Zimmerman described him as a shy and humble man who greeted all his neighbours, but kept to himself.

He rarely talked to anyone, and whenever he met us on his way to the nearby shop, he would greet us then walk with a bowed head to his gate. We liked him because he never bothered anyone. 

"Nobody ever suspected that he was the dangerous man police described him to be. Was he really as dangerous as they are saying he was?" the woman neighbour posed.

Cheruiyot, who had grown a long beard and shaved his head clean, loved his beer, and would at times walk into a nearby bar to enjoy a drink before returning to his house.

Whenever he left the house, he wore a peaked cap low, leaving very little of his face visible.

Cheruiyot had very little contact, if any, with his landlord since he rented the house in October 2004. On that day, Cheruiyot first came and paid rent and deposit. The next day, he arrived with some friends in a pick up carrying his luggage, and subsequently took over the house. 

He paid rent through the bank, but left money for the water and electricity bills with the woman neighbour, for onward transmission to the landlord.

"The landlord would leave all his water and electricity bills in my house, since his persistent knocks elicited no response from Cheruiyot’s gate. It was always quiet, but for some few occasions when I heard men talking. The only people who frequently entered the house were women," the neighbour revealed.

His male visitors always came in expensive vehicles, but only stayed for a short duration.

When detectives finally surrounded his residence on January 27, they knew that the suspect was ready for an all out war.

He had vowed that he would never be taken alive, and the fact that he had been implicated in the killing of two police officers in the city, did not make things easier for the contingent of officers who were looking for him.

Police sources revealed that Cheruiyot and his accomplice, John Mwaniki Karani, were first spotted at an entertainment spot, where they spent sometime before they went their separate ways. All the time, they were unaware that detectives were on their trail.

Separate teams of detectives from the Flying Squad trailed the suspects, and that detailed to hunt down Cheruiyot finally cordoned off his house at about 3am, then waited for an order from their seniors to execute the operation.

At daylight, the heavily armed detectives knocked on the woman neighbour's house and ransacked it after the gangster declined to open his gate, despite orders from the police.

"It is by luck that I opened the gate when the police arrived. Had I not opened, maybe the officers would have thought I was an accomplice," she said.

After shooting Cheruiyot’s accomplice in Woodley Estate at about 5am and recovering three AK-47 rifles, three automatic pistols, four AK-47 rifle magazines, 91 rounds of ammunition, three bullet-proof jackets and a set of vehicle number plates, the detectives expected a larger arsenal and a tougher fight.

True to their expectation, Cheruiyot remained holed up in the house even after tear gas canisters were lobbed into the house.

According to a police officer in the operation, Cheruiyot was overheard saying: Sasa munatupa tear gas ndani ya nyumba halafu mnaniambia nitoke nje. Ngojeni tu, tutaona leo. (Now you are throwing tear gas canisters into the house and then ordering me to come out. Just wait, today we’ll see).

All this time, the detectives were packed at his gate, while others had taken up positions behind his only other escape route through the back. But they could not as much as peep inside.

When police lobbed tear gas into the house through a broken window and fired a volley of shots, an angry and determined Cheruiyot fired back, forcing the officers to duck for cover.

When he emerged, the gangster had an Israeli-made Uzi sub-machine gun in his hands. He fired once, but was shot in the head by a police marksman before he fulfilled his mission of killing other police officers.

For a man who only served as a police reservist for less than six months, Cheruiyot was good with a gun, and seemed skilled in guerrilla warfare. Records from the CID headquarters revealed that Cheruiyot was inducted into the force as a reservist on February 6, 2001, in Eldoret and relieved of his duties that August,hardly six months after he joined the force.

He later allegedly worked for former Nairobi mayor Steve ‘Magic’ Mwangi and a Naivasha businessman-cum-politician. Evidently, he either spun yarns of his escapades as a CID officer to earn respect among his criminal accomplices, or was simply mistaken for a police officer.

Even police are still asking themselves how Cheruiyot managed to give everyone the impression that he was a former police officer, although no officer in the force recalls ever serving with him anywhere. 

When Const Christopher Karue and his three colleagues from Nairobi's Buru Buru police station went to arrest Cheruiyot in his Imara Daima Estate house last October, the fugitive came out brandishing an AK-47 assault rifle, then pumped several bullets into Mr Karue's head, killing him instantly.

He was also implicated in the murder of another Buru Buru police station-based officer Maina Cheserem in Westlands on Christmas Day. 

The officer was killed with a single bullet shot at point blank range through his ear, and his body was dumped next to his car along Lower Kabete Road. His belongings, including police uniform which other gangsters would have gladly taken away, were not stolen.

His gang was also implicated in the killing of Thika-based Broadways Bakery director Chunilal Fulchand Shah on January 15 and Ruiru police station-based Cpl Moses Odhiambo Ogolla on January 20. 

Mr Ogolla was gunned down on January 20 by four gangsters armed with AK-47 assault rifles as he escorted, together with two colleagues, a complainant in a disputed piece of land behind Ruiru General Service Unit Recce Company camp, near Thika Highway.

According to the businesswoman, Mr Ogolla and two other detectives got into her dark-blue Suzuki Escudo car, registration number KAP 209J, at about 11am on the fateful day and drove towards the farm.

 However, as they approached the disputed piece of land minutes after the arrest of one suspect, a white Toyota Corolla saloon car pulled up next to their vehicle.

I saw about four men armed with big guns jump out of the car and start spraying my car with bullets. 

"We all ducked under the dashboard and seats as the bullets wheezed past our heads. All the time I prayed to God to save our lives. Later some GSU officers from the nearby camp returned fire and shot at the gangsters who jumped back into their car and sped off," Ms Anne Knott, the businesswoman, said.

When reinforcements finally arrived, Mr Ogolla had been fatally shot, while two of his colleagues were seriously injured. One still has a bullet lodged in his lungs, while the other was treated and discharged after a bullet grazed his scalp.

Mr Ogolla was not new to gun battles with gangsters, both in Kiambu and Thika where he served.

He led his colleagues in arresting dreaded gangster Edward Maina Shimoli and his accomplices in their Gitari area hide-out on Nairobi-Naivasha highway in 1999. Mr Ogolla simply went and knocked onto Shimoli’s door in the wee hours of the night, after intelligence reports indicated that he was a drug dealer.

But when the gangster walked to his door and opened, Mr Ogolla grabbed him before the gangster could reach for his gun, wrestled and pinned him to the floor. 

The corporal's colleagues assisted and overpowered the gangster, who has since been sentenced, and is serving a long term at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison.

His immediate bosses included the Kiambu police chief Athanasius Munyagia, his criminal investigations department counterpart Daniel Mutie, and the Thika police chief James Adoli.

In Ruiru, businessmen are moaning the death of a diligent officer, who single-handedly fought crime and apprehended some of the most notorious criminals in the area.

He had just arrested a notorious criminal within Ruiru area, and was following leads that his seniors say would have led to the arrest of more criminals.

Mr Ogolla was married, and had a two-month-old baby. His wife, 21, is still in shock, unable to come to terms with the loss of her husband. 

In appreciation, the Ruiru business community and the police are assisting the slain officer's family with the funeral arrangements.