Police have found the car believed to have been used in the kidnapping of Rongo University Student Sharon Otieno. The officers in Migori also arrested the driver of the car and are questioning him to find out if he knows the killers.
Detectives believe the black Fielder saloon car was used in kidnapping Sharon and Nation journalist Barack Oduor in Rongo two weeks ago. Mr Oduor said he escaped by jumping out of the vehicle. Sharon was later found murdered, her body lying in a thicket near Oyugis town.
The Standard yesterday established that the vehicle had been used as a taxi in Migori town. Sources said the driver, Jack Gombe, was arrested on Sunday and was yesterday taken before a Oyugis court, where he faced charges of being an accomplice to the murder. Police successfully applied to detain him for ten days to facilitate further investigations.
“We are holding the vehicle. We also arrested the driver,” said a DCI officer privy to the arrests. The police have also questioned the owner of the car to establish if he knew that it had been hired out to the kidnappers.
Migori County police commander Joseph Nthenge could neither confirm nor deny the arrest. The impounded car is parked at a police station. Mr Nthenge confirmed that they had interrogated two people in connection with the killing of the student. Officers on patrol in Migori are said to have sighted the car as it was being driven by a senior county official, who may have hired it unknowingly.
The car, whose recovery may help the police in tracing the student’s killers still at large, has been missing since the incident two weeks ago. Sharon and Oduor had travelled from Homa Bay County to meet with Governor Okoth Obado’s Personal Assistant Michael Oyamo, who is in police custody.
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