• The suspect turned himself into DCI when he heard he was wanted, said he feared for his life. He had been described as armed and dangerous.
• The victim, Samuel Mugoh Muvota, had seven wives who lived lavishly and none seemed to know about the others, police said.
Image: CYRUS OMBATI
A man accused of killing notorious criminal Samuel Mugoh Muvota in Mirema, Nairobi, surrendered to police on Monday in a dramatic turn of events.
Dennis Karani Gachoki told police he is innocent and only met Muvota twice — once in Meru and once in Nairobi.
He surrendered to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters accompanied by lawyer Samuel Thuku.
He also confirmed he has an ongoing court case in Meru where he was accused of receiving money acquired through fraudulent means.
Gachoki said he thought his life was in danger, so he decided to surrender.
“I am innocent and I will prove this. I didn’t kill the man they say I killed,” he said.
He said he has been in Nakuru where he runs a cereals business.
Gachoki said he learnt he was wanted by police on Friday through a friend.
“Someone who recognised my photo alerted me that I was wanted. I have not known peace since then,” he said.
Gachoki comes from Kirinyaga county.
The detectives took him for further questioning. They said on Friday Gachoki is armed and dangerous.
They said he is suspected to have a firearm that was snatched from a stupefied police officer, after a round of drinks at a popular joint in Mombasa, in November 2020.
Efforts by detectives to arrest him have been futile since the suspect who reportedly is well-off allegedly influences rogue cops who tip him off when operation for his arrest has been launched, the DCI said.
The DCI said that on one occasion, Gachoki’s accomplice was texted minutes before his arrest, throwing a spanner in the works of a meticulous operation that had taken months to put together.
Police said on Friday Gachoki recently fell out with his boss Muvota over sharing of proceeds from their 'pishori trade' and beautiful women who would first pay with sex before being enlisted in the mafia-style, drinks spiking organisation.
This among other disputes are suspected to have led to a bitter falling out leading to Monday’s daylight murder of Muvota, who has left behind seven grieving widows and countless children.
Forensics and cyber detectives picked Gachoki’s last signal deep inside Burnt Forest, hours after the murder.
“We believe the suspect has already crossed the border to a neighbouring country," the DCI said.
A picture of the suspect was circulated asking for the public's help to arrest him.
Muvota, 40, was fatally shot by a lone gunman on Mirema Drive in Kasarani, Nairobi county, on May 16 shortly after dropping off a friend.
The owners of three of the seven documents found in the man’s Honda CR-V said in their police reports that they were victims of drugging.
Police said one of them is a university lecturer, another is a Thika-based businessman while the third is a resident of Roysambu.
All of them were stupefied at nightclubs within Kasarani and Kahawa West areas between May 14 and May 16.
On Thursday, the DCI said Muvota’s files "stink to high heaven".
The findings have revealed skeletons in the man’s closet dating as far back as 2011, when Muvota started stealing from victims at ATMs.
He graduated to being a full-time thug who hired beautiful, expensive-looking women and deployed them to spike drinks at various high-end entertainment spots.
Muvota headed an ATM and SIM swapping syndicate that operated like a mafia criminal organisation. He apparently was a multi- millionaire with several real estate properties scattered across the city, a fleet of vehicles and seven wives.
All lived lavishly from the proceeds of stupefied patrons in clubs most frequented by revellers.
Police said none of the wives suspected his double life. So lucrative was Muvota’s trade that he had recruited over 50 attractive women into his 'pishori' administering trade.
That business has led to broken marriages, left many men admitted in hospitals and others dead. Police said they apparently died of an overdose of a stupefying drug only identified as ‘Tamuu’.
It is supposed to be prescribed by a psychiatrist to patients suffering from mental disorders.
Muvota spent 11 years in the highly dangerous trade that has recently targeted fun-seekers in high-end clubs — top public servants, businessmen, politicians and clerics.
(Edited by V. Graham)