Taxi operators from Makongeni estate in the outskirts of Thika town are urging the local Directorate of Criminal Investigations to carry out thorough investigations to unravel the circumstances under which their colleague disappeared mysteriously on Friday night at the Makongeni taxi bay.
The operators who had thronged Thika DCIOs office Thursday to inquire about the matter told the Press that they have been following crucial leads to what transpired on the fateful Friday when their colleague Edward Mburu was kidnapped by unknown persons posing as clients.
The operators who spoke on condition of anonymity said that they now feared that their colleague might have been murdered after his phone and clothes were found in a pit latrine at kihumbu-ini in Murang’a County Wednesday.
Mburu is said to have received a call on Friday at around 11pm from an unknown caller, after few chats, he informed his colleagues he had left to ferry a passenger and would be back later.
His car, a Toyota Succeed was later found abandoned at Kihumbu-ini centre on Monday.
Two suspects who were found with the car at Kihumbu-ini trading center were given a thorough beating by members of the public after it emerged that the car had been stolen.
The irate mob rained blows and kicks on the two brothers and almost lynched them save for police intervention. Details had emerged that the car had been spotted in their compound on Saturday morning a day after Mburu disappeared.
Preliminary reports from the Thika CIDs offices indicate that, on the material night, the suspect’s mother had informed her husband that she was expecting some visitors in the night and the visitors arrived riding in Mburu’s vehicle.
The husband told the police that when his wife’s visitors arrived at around 1.00am, he was awoken by shrill screams outside his house and later the wife called him requesting him to assist them drive the vehicle for them.
He however refused to touch the vehicle when he saw blood stains on the back seat.
Area DCIO Linus Owango confirmed that they are holding the 2 suspects and are looking for their mother and sister who have since gone into hiding.
He said that it is believed that the two suspects and their mother had hired the taxi driver to commit a crime but when he refused to comply they silenced him.
They are now combing Kihumbui-ini trading center and the homestead to trace Mburu dead or alive.
The taxi operators are now operating in fear as this incident comes barely 3 months after yet another taxi operator was murdered at Section 9 Estate within Thika town by unknown people as he made entry into the compound.
By Pasca Chesach
