Dafton Mwitiki shot to the limelight during the DusitD2 rescue mission in January, last year.
Media cameras captured Mwitiki — or Dafton as he is popularly known — carrying a sophisticated rifle alongside politician Steve Mbogo. It was apparent that gun handling was not a new adventure to Mwitiki.
He is now missing for 10 days.
This missing businessman was an active award-winning member of the National Gun Owners Association (NGOA)
It is now emerging that Mwitiki lived a two-faced life. One was that of a shrewd and an aggressive businessman. For instance, his brother, Victor, says Mwitiki was in a rush to seal a deal on the day he disappeared.
The other side was shrouded in mystery, investigators say.
The first as a doting father and humorous friend who was always the life of the party. A man who never shied away from lending a helping hand and answering calls from friends in need.
The other image is a complete opposite. A darker shade of the man. Investigators who have also been looking for the man say Mwitiki is one of the key leaders of a brutal, well-organised kidnapping ring responsible for high calibre disappearances in and around the city.
He managed to keep his dark side away from the public to the extent that there is no known incident or time when he was summoned to record a statement with the police.
Confidential sources within the security circles said Mwitiki was living on borrowed time after he was linked to two major cases of kidnap in Nairobi. In one of the incidents that involved a Chinese man, the kidnappers demanded a Sh100 million ransom, the Standard reported.
Four suspects among them Administration Police officers were killed by the Special Service Unit officers during a rescue mission on February 29th. The kidnapping of the man got the attention of security agencies including the DCI and NIS. The abducted man according to the DCI was kidnapped from his shop on February 27 by individuals impersonating officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.
“Forensic intelligence led the investigating team to House no. 2199, where the victim was being held under an armed four-man-guard, who had demanded a $1 million (Sh 100 million) ransom from his brother to secure his release,” the DCI said via Twitter.
A police pistol and bullets were recovered from a house at Sun Track Estate in Dagoretti where the victim was beign held.
Behind the scenes, the confidential sources told The Standard, the mobile phone used to demand ransom was registered in Mwitiki’s name.
This incident is believed to have been the first that lifted the lid of the man believed to have been pulling the strings in the Chinese national kidnapping.
“The callers were using what looked like a sophisticated phone which even the DCI investigators could not trace. It is at this point that NIS came into the probe and helped unravel the behind the scenes actors,” said a senior official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Prior to this, Mwitiki is said to have been linked to another case of kidnapping where a university student was abducted in Nairobi and a Sh100 million ransom demand made. This matter was reported to Kilimani Police Station on January 13 but the DCI dropped the investigations after the family negotiated with the kidnappers.
Eventually, the family paid Sh4 million to have the relative freed. The sources said the same line registered in Mwitiki’s name was used to demand a ransom.
The 38-year-old father of two, a sharpshooter, and an official of the association of civilian firearm holders was reported missing at Kilimani after he failed to return home on the night of March 11.
His vehicle was traced a day later to an estate in Juja. Mwitiki was last seen near his workplace at Galana Plaza in Kilimani, Nairobi before he mysteriously disappeared.
Courtesy of The Standard
