MP Were's driver turned witness as DPP approves murder charges

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) approved murder charges against five suspects in connection with the killing of Member of Parliament for Kasipul Constituency Charles Ong’ondo Were.

The suspects are scheduled to be arraigned on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, before the Kibera and Milimani High Courts.

The DPP said he had perused the evidence provided and concluded the five were involved in the murder.

Three of the suspects—William Imoli alias Imo, Edwin Oduor Odhiambo alias Machuani, and Ebel Ochieng alias Dave Calo—will appear before the Kibera High Court.

The other suspects, Allan Omondi Ogola, who served as the MP’s bodyguard, and Isaac Kuria alias Kush, who investigations show was the hitman, will be charged at the Milimani High Court.

Ogola is a police officer.

Calo is a director at the Lake Basin Development Authority based in Kisumu.

Investigations indicate that the five, together with others not before the court, conspired and murdered Were on April 30, 2025, at approximately 7:40 p.m., the DPP said.

The incident occurred at the City Mortuary Roundabout along Valley Road, within Kilimani Sub-County in Nairobi County.

On Tuesday, Dennis Sewe Manyasi and Walter Awino Owino, driver to MP, were released by the JKIA magistrate's court after the prosecution said the two are expected to be state witnesses against the accused persons.

The now-witnesses held emotional prayers with their families outside the court after they were released.

They were given conditions for them to be turned to be witnesses, officials said.

The police said the murder was planned way before its execution, with meetings within and outside Nairobi. It has been linked to local politics.

There were up to 12 suspects who had been arrested over the murder probe.

Five of them were released unconditionally after the probe failed to link them to the murder.

Some of them are now witnesses in the case.

One of the suspects had earlier alleged he received a down payment of Sh850,000, a claim partially substantiated after police recovered part of the money from his home in US dollars.

The murder had turned hot in Homa Bay as it emerged it was linked to local succession politics.