Wife of a Kenyan Airports Authority (KAA) employee and her relatives have been arrested over a plot to assassinate him.
Buburu Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) boss Jeremiah
Ikiao on Thursday, June 23, said Bilha Njoki had hired hitmen to kill
her husband but police got wind of the plot and laid a trap to catch
her.
Detectives, a day earlier had tricked her that he had been killed and
his body dumped in Dandora. After she received the ‘good news’, she
sent her brother and a friend to the ‘crime scene’ to confirm if it was
indeed true.
Unbeknownst to them, undercover detectives who acted as the hitmen,
had taken her husband to the supposed scene and covered his body with
blood. When the two arrived and saw the ‘body’, they celebrated and
called the woman to ‘confirm’ that he was, indeed, dead.
It was then that the officers arrested the two and confiscated their
phones before ordering them to reveal the woman’s whereabouts. Police
had made sure that they had gathered adequate evidence before making the
arrest.
The police informer had been told to meet the planners at a
restaurant along Manyanja Road that had a CCTV camera and had also been
given a recorder.
The sleuths had also kept a record of all calls and had established
that she had bought a new phone and line for the planning of the
execution of her estranged husband.
The woman was arrested near Mama Lucy Hospital while inside a black
Toyota Harrier together with her sister. The detectives recovered Sh400,
000 and six mobile phones.
The hitman was to be paid Sh500,000, but the woman only paid
Sh100,000 as down payment. The remaining Sh400,000, which was recovered
from the car when they were arrested, was to be paid after she had
confirmed that her husband had been killed.
In his statement to the police, the husband, a resident of Buruburu
Phase 5, said that he married her in 2007 and that they have two
children. However, they separated early last year and the children have
been under his custody.
Mr Ikiao said that his officers had worked closely with her estranged
husband to gather enough evidence about the plan and also to trap the
hitmen while at the same time ensuring that he was safe.
Police said the intended killing could be due to properties and
businesses the two still co-own. Among the properties owned by the
estranged couple are a house in Buruburu Estate and a mobile phone shop
along Luthuli Avenue.
The suspects are expected in court on Friday to be charged with conspiracy to commit murder.