The late Waris Daud (left) and her niece, Amina Abdirashid Dhahir.
As a manhunt for the prime suspect in the killings of a mother, her daughter and niece intensifies, it has emerged he only recently acquired an interim driving license that had expired at the time of their disappearances.
Police believe that Hashim Dagane Muhumed is the one who lured Waris Daud, 38, her 12-year-old daughter Nuseiba Dahir and her niece Amina Abdirashad, 23, to their deaths on Monday, October 21.
According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), Hashim, 24, was the driver of a Nissan Note registration number KDQ 718Y that was captured on CCTV cameras picking Nuseiba and Amina from their Eastleigh home around 9pm on Monday.
“Investigations established Hashim was driving the Nissan Note (registration number KDQ 718Y) car captured on CCTV cameras picking the victims from their Eastleigh home on October 21, 2024, hours before their bodies were discovered scattered at various locations,” the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) said in a statement.
The vehicle was later found abandoned at Wakulima market not far away from the area two of the bodies were discovered at around 6am on Tuesday.
The body of Nuseiba was found at Bahati in Makadara and that of Amina at 6th Avenue Parklands. The body of Waris, which was without limbs, was found at Khyumbi in Machakos, 30km from Eastleigh. Her severed hands were discovered at South C along Five-Star road.
Police say one suspect known to Hashim is in custody and is assisting with investigations as the manhunt for the fugitive intensifies.
National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) records show Mr Hashim possesses an interim driving license issued on February 22, 2024. It expired on August 22, 2024, which means by the time he was allegedly captured driving the car with the victims it had expired for two months. He is authorised to drive Class B2 vehicles.
On Saturday, a man was arrested in Dhobley in Somalia by security agencies on suspicion he was the fugitive. He was arrested outside a salon as he waited for his wife.
But it later turned out to be a case of mistaken identity after he provided identification papers.
He later travelled with his wife from Dhobley to Garissa County in Kenya where he released a video briefing the public about the incident. He clarified he had nothing to do with the murders.
On the day the three went missing, another woman told police she had also been abducted but was freed after her family paid Sh1 million ransom to an Ethiopian account, according to detectives attached to the DCI.
“The woman reached out to her family and informed them that her life was in danger. It is then that they quickly paid some money to an international account,” a detective privy to the matter told Nation.Africa in confidence.
The woman is among those interviewed by detectives. Others are the landlord of the apartment where the victims lived and a person who sold a phone to the suspect who is on the run.
The car linked to the triple murder was recovered last Thursday at Wakulima market.
It is believed that the killers first dumped the body of Nuseiba near Bahati primary school, then proceeded to Parklands where they dumped that of Amina.
They then drove to South C where they chopped off the hands of Daud and dumped the limbs there. They then drove to Kyumbi in Machakos County where her body was found. From there the vehicle was driven back to Nairobi and abandoned at Wakulima market.
The vehicle was discovered after detectives combed CCTV footage in Parklands and Eastleigh. That is how they spotted the registration number of the car that had first been captured outside the apartment where the victims lived as the two girls boarded it.
Earlier that day, Daud had left home in the morning informing her niece and daughter that she wanted to undergo some skin-care treatment at a facility located at the Business Bay Square (BBS) Mall in Eastleigh.
When night fell and she had not returned the girls chose to go look for Daud as she was not also answering calls.
Police say Daud’s phone was later in constant communication with that of her niece on the day they went missing.
Government pathologist Johansen Oduor said a post mortem examination on the bodies show Nuseiba died of smothering, which is blocking of the airway. He also said that they suspected that the 12-year-old had been raped. Samples had been taken for analysis.
Mr Oduor said that Amina had multiple stab wounds with one piercing through the heart.
Daud had serious injuries on the neck and there were indications she had been tortured.
The three were laid to rest at the Lang’ata cemetery. Daud’s husband is based in the United Kingdom (UK) where he lives with another wife who recently had visited Kenya.
