Details have emerged on how Migori Governor Okoth Obado was arrested in the basement of a five-star hotel in Nairobi as he tried to leave in a taxi. Obado was at the hotel to attend a function where Deputy President William Ruto was meeting a group of international development partners.
The governor left before the event ended and escorted by his bodyguards towards the VIP washrooms on the first floor of the hotel. Reporter claimed that Obado had called a taxi and asked the management of the hotel to allow it into the basement, where he boarded it.
Minutes after Obado left the room where the function was going on, five plain-clothes officers with walkie-talkies walked into the hotel and were directed to where he had gone.
An armed officer who realised the governor’s seat was empty followed him to the basement and stopped the taxi. The officer asked the governor to step out. The two walked up a ramp to the ground floor to the entrance opposite International House.
Governor Obado was then escorted into a waiting police car and driven to the offices of the Special Crimes Prevention Unit (SCPU) off Ngong Road. He was later moved to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters along Kiambu Road.
The embattled Migori Couty boss was informed that he was under arrest because a pistol found in his Migori home was believed to be illegal or unregistered.
Obado was taken into custody and questioned after eight guns were among other things confiscated from his homes during a raid by officers from the anti-graft agency.
The ownership of five of the guns has so far been established, but police are wondering why Mr Obado, who is licensed to carry one gun, had three pistols, in addition to the bodyguards assigned to him.
It was not clear Wednesday evening whether the pistols — two Ceskas and a Browning — were approved by the Firearms Licensing Board. The law demands valid reasons why a licensed owner needs more than one firearm.
Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) George Kinoti said the governor was being questioned concerning the number of firearms found in his homes.
“We want to establish who from the board validated the acquisition of the three firearms and what were the reasons or threats the governor gave,” Mr Kinoti said.
Apart from scrutinising the validity of the governor’s firearm documents, detectives will subject them to ballistic examinations to trace the history of use.
The law prohibits a licensed civilian from owning a weapon classified as a specified firearm — a family to which an AK 47, a G3, an MP5 and such other similar firearms as may be specified by the government — belong.
The governor, who earlier in the day attended Deputy President William Ruto’s forum on the Big Four Agenda at Hilton Hotel in Nairobi, left the conference room around 1.30pm only to be later spotted at the Special Crimes Prevention Unit in Upper Hill in the company of plainclothes police officers.