Officers from the disbanded Special Service Unit accused of murdering two Indians and a Kenyan will now face charges of abduction and conspiracy to commit an offense.
The Director of Public prosecutions approved the charges even as it awaits the DNA results to decide whether to prefer murder charges against the suspects.
"In respect of the investigation into the proposed offence of murder, we note that the said report from the government chemist analyst and the DNA sample is not yet ready," reads a letter from Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Joseph Riungu to the director of Internal Affairs Unit.
"The decision on the said proposed charge will be made when the same is completed and analysed. Consequently, you are directed to arraign the said suspects to answer to the said charges."
At least 21 officers from the unit have been grilled in connection with the disappearance of Mohamed Zaid Sami Kidwai, Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan and their driver Nicodemus Mwania Mwange.
The two Indians are said to have been part of a team that had come to Kenya to join an IT team that ran President William Ruto's election campaigns.
They are said to have been abducted near Ole Sereni and driven away in an unmarked car on July 24, 2022.
Reports indicate their car was blocked and armed men picked them up before vanishing.
Two vehicles assigned to the disbanded unit have been linked to the disappearance of the three.
The unit which had 58 officers was disbanded on orders from President Ruto who raised serious concerns over a spike in extrajudicial killings in the country.
“Mimi mwenyewe niliamuru kuvunjwa kwa hicho kikosi sijui special what (I ordered the disbandment of the unit). Our people were being found murdered and their bodies dumped in River Yala and other places. That is the sort of history we want to forget as a nation,” the President said in a past interview.
Deputy Inspector-General Noor Gabow ordered the IAU to take over the investigation and submit a report.
Some officers from the unit travelled to India late last year to collect DNA samples from the victims’ families.
The trio had earlier been said to have been murdered and their bodies dumped at Aberdare forest.
More than 100 police officers deployed to the forest to search for the three returned with dozens of bones which they believed are human ones, belts and clothes.
They took them for safe custody ahead of a planned DNA sampling to know whose they are.
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