Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir has recorded a statement at the Regional Police Headquarters regarding the abduction and sodomy of a 25-year-old blogger based in the Coastal city three weeks ago.
The victim, Bruce John, claims that a group of about 20 county officers abducted him at his home in Bamburi on September 12 for criticizing Nassir’s leadership, before assaulting and taking turns sexually assaulting him at Miritini area.
Addressing journalists after recording the statement in Mombasa, Nassir urged the police to expedite investigations into the inhumane incident.
“Nimejileta hapa kwa hiari yangu kwa sababu hakuna yeyote yuko juu ya sheria. Hicho kitendo lazima kiweze kulaaniwa,” said Nassir.
“Lazima haki iweze kupatikana kwa huyu kijna na vitendo kama hivi. Nimeomba DCI waweze kuharakisha na waweze kumaliza hili jambo ili kijana aweze kupata haki yake.”
On September 30, the Mombasa County boss said he was “hurt” by accusations linking him to the heinous act.
Addressing a press conference in Mombasa, Nassir insisted that neither his mother nor himself played a hand in the blogger’s attack.
“Throughout my life, neither I nor any of my family members have crossed the line of meting out violence on anyone. Even on public platforms, my policy is never to mention anyone by name, or speaking vulgar language,” the Governor said then.
Four individuals have since been arraigned at the Shanzu Law Courts in connection with the incident.
Abdul Athman, Violet Adera, Esther Muthoni and Haji Babu, are accused of orchestrating the attack.
“They were charged with conspiracy to commit a felony and abduction with intent to confine,” the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) said in a statement on X on September 24.
Additionally, Hassan and Babu were charged with gang rape and assault with intent to cause actual bodily harm.
They denied the charges before Senior Resident Magistrate Robert Mbogo.
The suspects similarly applied for bail but the prosecution team, led by Anthony Musyoka, opposed the plea on grounds that the quartet was a flight risk.
Teen ‘killed’ woman, 42, on first date
A teenager is accused of murdering his 42-year-old date because he allegedly “wanted to know what it feels like to kill a person”.
Cops tracked down the 17-year-old boy after reviewing hours of CCTV footage and speaking to several key witnesses. Maria Campai, 42, who was reportedly on a first date with the teen, suddenly vanished near Palma, Italy, on September 19, after telling loved ones she was going for a job interview.
The following day, officers launched a search operation, sparked by her sister filing a missing persons report. When their enquiries led them to the teenager, he was arrested, and immediately led police to the body – which lay under some leaves in the garden of an abandoned house in Viadana, northeast of Parma, Italy. The corpse showed signs of strangulation and blows to the face and head.
Officers believe Ms Campai and the 17-year-old had sex, followed by a row after she refused to comply with his requests. It is believed he then knocked her out with several dumbbell blows to the face before strangling her. His family’s garage, which the teenager had turned into his gym, was marked with traces of blood in a scene that the Italian press dubbed the “garage of horrors”.
Italian police suspect the teenager killed Ms Campai in the garage, before dragging her body to the spot where it was found. He also told officers he wanted to “know what it feels like to kill a person”.
Ms Campai, who is thought to have met the boy through a paid dating site, showed up to their first meeting with a friend but went with the teenager to the garage after her friend left. The 42-year-old was originally from Romania but moved to Italy in 2000, where she lived with her husband in Tuscany. After her divorce in 2022, she moved in with her sister Roxana in Parma.
