By People Team @PeopleDailyKe

Police yesterday embarked on piecing together information and analysing images that might help throw a lead on the gangland-style assassination of Kabete MP George Muchai, his driver and  two bodyguards.

The task, according to initial indicators might be challenging even as CCTV footage analysed by investigators provided some leads, including the execution and the gateway car in which the hit men escaped. The car reported to be a Toyota Probox had Uganda registration.

And as the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) officers delved into the tapes, a team of three officers from DCI headquarters left for Uganda to establish the authenticity of the number plates.    According to a police source, it was a white saloon car; either a Probox or a station wagon model.

The footage shows the MP’s car slowing down as it eased from Uhuru Highway to Kenyatta Avenue and a newspaper vendor approaching the car carrying the papers. However, before the vendor could take payment, a salon car was seen accelerating from behind and hitting the MP’s car at the back from the right side.

Immediately, a hooded gunman, who judging from the exceptionally high level of expertise, according to analysts, emerged from the Probox and first fired at the driver, then like a bolt of lightening systematically shot the MP and two other occupants of the vehicle.

The fact that he and his cronies were hooded provided yet another pointer to his likely awareness of the presence of the CCTV and implications of being identified. After the shooting, all by the same hit man, he motioned to the two other occupants of the salon car who then emerged and collected guns from the victims and what looked like a briefcase from the MP’s car.

“The saloon car then took a U-turn on the wrong side of the road towards Uhuru Highway and sped towards the direction of Haile Selassie,” said the source. The event took less than two minutes, sometime between 2.40 am and 3.00 am.

And as investigations focused on CCTV footage, a funeral committee chaired by Kiambu Senator Kimani Wamatangi said the late  MP will be buried on Friday  to be  preceded by  a church service on  Thursday. Wamatangi said the committee will also be involved in making preparations of the burial arrangements of the late MPs driver, Stephen Wambugu and two body guards Samuel ole Matanta and Samuel Kimathi.

Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero   while condoling with the families and friends of the deceased expressed optimism that  CCTV records would go some way in   resolving  the  multiple murders  that have shocked the ordinary Kenyans and leaders alike.    Calls to bring to account Muchai’s killers  intensified  with  four  MPs from Kiambu county condemning  what they described as heinous execution.

MPs Francis Waititu (Juja), Moses Kuria (Gatundu South), Humphrey Njuguna (Gatanga) and Annah Nyokabi (Kiambu Women’s Rep) said they  were perturbed, angered and shocked by the sudden and grisly murder of their amiable  colleague.

Speaking at Mukinyi village in Gatundu South during the burial of the late Ndorongo wa Gatheru, a prominent farmer ad church leader, the MPs asked the government to investigate the death and bring the culprits to book.  Without mincing her words, Nyokabi claimed the suspects were known: “We know Muchai had serious differences with some people who remain the prime suspects,” said Muchai.

Kuria  said no stone should remain unturned until the killers of Muchai are brought to book. He said it is disheartening that Kiambu county has now lost two MPs in the current Parliament.   In western Kenya, Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya, Senator Boni Khalwale and Shinyalu MP Lisamula Anami said the mafia-like assassination was shocking and demanded immediate arrest of the perpetrators.

They said even elected leaders were no longer safe going by the spate of mysterious deaths in the recent past.  “Muchai’s murder is shocking. It sends a chill  down the spines of  Kenyans who cannot even access a single bodyguard. I urge the government to enhance security for elected leaders because they have a lot of enemies out there,” said Oparanya.

Speaking separately in Kakamega, the leaders said it was clear that Kenya’s security and intelligence systems “were grinding to a halt”.  “We have never seen or heard of such things in the past. Even when prominent personalities were assassinated, it was not Muchai’s style. We are in the era of sophisticated security surveillance and such cases should not occur in our country,” said Khalwale.

In Nairobi, the civil society has called for speedy investigations into the murder. Addressing the press yesterday, the president of the National Civil Society Congress Morris Odhiambo called for serious reconsideration of the performance of the security apparatus, its weaknesses and challenges.