Friends till death: Wife of slain Indian recounts his last moments
Friends till death: Mr Mohammad Zaid Sami Kidwai (with beards) and Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan. The two were abducted and allegedly murdered by members of the disbanded Special Service Unit.
The wife of one of the two Indian men allegedly abducted and killed in Kenya has provided details of how she struggled searching for her husband on the day he went missing.
In a letter to the Indian High Commission in Nairobi, a copy of which the Nation has obtained, Ambreen Kidwai, wife of Mr Mohammad Zaid Sami Kidwai, said the two men had come to Kenya in February 2022 on tourist visas.
She said Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan was a friend of her husband.
On the day the two went missing, they had excused themselves to go for drinks.
This account was corroborated by President William Ruto's aide, Dennis Itumbi.
The two were in Kenya to join President Ruto’s campaign team as IT experts.
“They had stepped out of the Nairobi hotel where they were staying and headed to a bar at 22:45pm on July 22, 2022,” she told the High Commission.
Ms Kidwai said she called her husband a few minutes before midnight and he responded that he would leave the bar after 15 minutes.
She said she retired to bed and woke up at 3am, only to find that her husband had not yet returned. She then started the long search for the two men and their driver, Nicodemus Mwania, which continues.
She explained that she called her husband but his phone had been switched off. She then called Mr Mwania and his phone was off too.
Ms Kidwai said that she also checked with mutual friends in Nairobi but they had not heard from her husband either.
Sought CCTV footage
The next day, she went to the bar where the two had been and sought CCTV footage, which showed that they left the premises a few minutes before 1am.
The footage showed that they boarded a Toyota sedan, the car driven by Mr Mwania.
Ms Kidwai positively identified the car to the police as the one the two Indians had been using.
The men have not been found but nine police officers who served in the disbanded Special Service Unit were arrested in relation to the disappearances.
They include Peter Muthee Gachiku, Francis Muendo Ndonye, John Mwangi Kamau, and Joseph Kamau Mbugua.
These were the first suspects arrested in connection with the disappearances.
The others were Joseph Mbaya, David Kipsoi, Stephen Mutunda, Paul Muriithi and Simon Gikonyo.
The suspects will know their fate on Monday next week, when a court will decide whether they will be detained for another 30 days as prosecutors requested.
The two Indians are believed to have been kidnapped and murdered.
The very first details of their suspected deaths were made public in an affidavit that was produced in a court in Kahawa, Nairobi, by investigating officer Michael Kirui.
The affidavit did not cite the motive of the murders, but shed light on an alleged killer squad that was ready to pull the trigger and worked closely with other rogue elements in the DCI.
President Ruto has claimed that the disbanded unit was an elite squad formed by former Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) boss George Kinoti involved in extrajudicial killings.
