Kenya’s professional witness

Two accidents, 184 kilometers apart, but happens to have the same witness, scared Kenyans.

By Njeri Kimani, editorial@alleastafrica.com

NAIROBI – Kenyans dismissed him as a high profiled witness –in- chief. In fact, the laughed and joked, claiming that Dennis Ngengi was a professional eye witness having observed  two high profile  death incidents in the country.

In recent weeks, the social media was awash with his new brand name and even came up with #EyeWitnessChallange. As a result, for three days, Kenyans were entertained with memes and jokes about the supposedly witness.

How one man happened to be coincidentally be at two scenes of accidents and possible crime, remains a big puzzle to Kenyans. The two accidents, 184 kilometers apart, but happens to have the same witness, scared Kenyans.

After fingerprint forensic analysis, the suspect was found to have eight previous conviction using eight different names.

Yet, as days rolled on, Kenyans now express fear that there could be more to the scary witness that what the government would want us to believe.

Kenyans are now torn in between what to call him, with records referring to him as Charles Karanja, Francis Karanja Mungai, Francis  Theuri or Martin Githaiga. At one point, police record indicated that his nickname was Cameroon. He had earlier on been accused of personating, obtaining money by false pretense, malicious damage, stealing and giving false information.

“The names Dennis Mungai Ngengi appears to be the newly acquired alias names amongst many others that he is using,” read the report

Ngegi  came to the limelight at  Lake Nakuru after a chopper crashed two weeks ago, killing its five occupants. Three of the occupants were linked to Controversial Nakuru Senator Susan Kihikas communication team. In an interview with NTV, He claimed that he was a state pilot and was a friend and colleague of the dead pilot.

Barely a week later, he was the only witness in an early morning crash that claimed the Nyeri governor Wahome Gakurus life. In his statement, he disputed the police version of the case of the accident which claims that the driver lost control and hit a rail by the road.

Ngengi claimed that he conversed with the governor, who told him that he had hurt his leg. He claimed he was being driven b a female police officer behind the governors’ car.

After his arrest, through the directive from the Director of Criminal Investigations Ndegwa Muhoro, it was discovered that he had eight aliases and a long criminal record. He had earlier on been arrested on charges ranging from stealing, fraud

A cross section of Kenyans have expressed concern that Ngengi could be a paid assassin sent to finish key people working in the government or high profile Kenyans.

“He simply sends the message home. In fact his aim is to show people that they are being watched. He is not shy to make his appearance felt.  He is meant to instill fear which he does very well,” said Alex Muchai.

However, the puzzle remains how he could be able to get eight different identity cards as per all his aliases. How the government could verify him in eight different occasions yet using the same fingerprints creates the notion that the government had loopholes in the registration department.

“In fact, it raises the questions on how many times he voted. Since the KIEMS kit used finger prints, it could only mean that he registered in very different areas as a voter and was able to vote eight different times,” said Shikoh Kihika, the CEO of #TribelessYouth.

Shikoh claimed that the eye witness was being used as an intimidation tool especially to people who were linked to senior politicians.

“Why he would choose to appear on TV remains the biggest mystery,” she added.

Lilian Okoth demanded that the government should come clean on the identity of the “serial killer.”

“How can a man be so comfortable to talk about dead people? Why would he show himself in very controversial deaths? The question remains who or what institution he is working for. As Kenyans we deserve better.” She added.