Court okays detention of eight ex-SSU officers for 21 days, approves DNA tests

A court on Thursday granted a 21-day detention period and also approved the collection of blood samples from ex-SSU officers for DNA analysis to establish whether they are connected to exhibits recovered by investigators.

Kahawa Law Courts Chief Magistrate Diana Mochache approved the longer detention of eight of the accused persons, offering a 500,000 cash bail to only one officer.

Mochache said the accused persons would be escorted to the National Forensic Laboratory for exercise of extracting blood samples.

She pointed out that each of the officers is at liberty to have a pathologist of their own choice during the process.

The magistrate also authorized the investigators to forensically examine the officers’ mobile phones.

The nine are accused of abducting and disappearing Mohamed Zaid and Zulfiqar Ahmed, as well as their driver Nicodemus Mwange on July 25.

The case will be mentioned on December 1 for further direction.

The case against the officers is one of legal proceedings ongoing in various courts in line with a government-backed push for police accountability.