Lawyer Mbobu murder: Detectives pursue people he met at city hotel for clues on killers

Detectives are pursuing people suspected of having met slain lawyer Mathew Kyalo Mbobu for lunch at a city hotel for clues on his killers.

Detectives believe a lunch meeting that slain lawyer Mbobu held at a Nairobi restaurant could have been a setup for his killing.

The team handling the murder said Thursday they were keen to talk to the people that Mbobu met at the restaurant for three hours.

This was after a review of security footage at the facility revealed what officials termed as “suspicious movements and contacts”.

The persons are deemed people of interest in the probe, officials said.

An autopsy was planned on the body on Thursday to establish how he died.

His body was moved to the Lee Funeral Home on Tuesday night after his murder, where the exercise is expected to be conducted.

First Lady Mama Rachael Ruto is among those who visited the family at the mortuary on Tuesday night.

According to those who have seen the footage, he met at least six people for three hours he was at the joint along Jakaya Kikwete Road.

The nature of their discussion is yet to be revealed.

The footage is helping piece together Mbobu’s final movements, tracing his journey from his city office to the restaurant.

He arrived at the hotel at 11:05 am on Tuesday, where he held a three-hour meeting with several individuals who are now being treated as persons of interest.

He left at about 1.45 pm after paying a bill of Sh3,800.

The detectives are also relying on his mobile phone records to establish who he talked to before, during, and after the meeting.

Later that day, at 5:09 pm, Mbobu left his office before heading home.

He was headed for his Bogani residence in Karen when the two assailants who were trailing him struck with chilling precision. 

Among others, the team plans to investigate whether he was killed over his work. 

The team visited three banks where the lawyer had accounts, seeking to establish if he had made any recent transactions, which could be considered dirty and the source of the murder. 

The team was also working with Mbobu’s partners at his law firm to get to know his clients to help in the probe. One of his clients is said to have recorded a statement with the police on Wednesday.

His family will also be talked to state if he had expressed any fears over his work. 

“It could be anything from his work or something else. We are open with the theories so far,” said a senior official aware of the probe. 

Director of DCI Mohamed Amin, in the meantime, appealed to anyone with information that could assist the investigations to report to the nearest police station, #FichuKwaDCI toll-free number 0800 722 203 or forward the information confidentially to the DCI through WhatsApp number 0709 570 000.

“We wish to inform the public that immediately the incident was reported, the scene was visited by a team of detectives under the leadership of RCIO Nairobi. After securing the scene, detectives from the DCI Homicide Bureau, supported by experts from the National Forensic Laboratory, carefully examined the scene and collected critical evidence essential to the investigation.”

“The DCI is committed to ensuring that the perpetrators of this heinous act are brought to justice. Our investigators are working diligently, employing all available resources and expertise to piece together the events surrounding this incident,” he said. 

The investigation team had Wednesday visited the office, a restaurant where he had lunch, and the roads he used prior to his death. 

The gunman behind the shooting had been dropped by his rider and walked casually to where Mbobu was seated in his car, and in a traffic ja,m before opening fire using a pistol that he had.

Police collected three spent cartridges from the car.

And after shooting the author and law lecturer, the gunman ran back to a waiting motorcycle and boarded it before it sped off.

Other riders who witnessed the shooting tried to chase him in vain.

They told police they retreated after the gunman shot in the air twice, ostensibly to scare them as the rider raced back to the city centre. Police believe the man was targeted for murder.

Mbobu, a former chairman of the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal, was shot and killed on Tuesday, September 9, 202,5 at about 5.30 pm as he drove to his Bogani residence in Karen, police said.

The assailants did not steal anything from him.

He was alone in the car at the time of the shooting.

It was outside the Galleria Mall that the killers were captured on the security cameras trailing Mbobu’s car.

According to the police, they trailed the car as it moved at snail's pace past Brookhouse School up to a drift where the traffic stopped.

The security cameras captured the rider riding past the car before he made a U-turn, and the pillion passenger, who was the gunman, alighted about 40 meters away, where the lawyer’s car had stopped in a traffic jam.

The gunman, according to police, walked to the driver’s side of the lawyer and found the window shield half closed.

It was then that the gunman pulled the trigger, hitting the lawyer in the chin and head at least three times.

The window shield was shattered. The four-wheel drive car moved at a slow pace and hit a matatu that was ahead of it as the passengers, alerted by the gunshots, scampered for their safety.

Other boda boda riders who operate in the area sped to the scene in attempt to stop the attackers, but were scared after the gunman shot in the air as they rode off from the scene.

Mbobu’s body was found slumped in the car with the engine running.

He has been mourned as a good man. There is also pressure on the police to crack the murder.