This archive report was first published on 17 July 2021.
Corporal Caroline Kangogo's death on July 16, 2021, has left many questions unanswered. According to eyewitnesses, Kangogo interacted with a matatu driver at Iten and sent a message to her brother before traveling to her parent's home in Anin, Elgeyo Marakwet County.
Two residents, close members of the family, claimed that they interacted with the fugitive on Thursday, July 15. They linked Kangogo's father with Kenyans.co.ke.
One of the eyewitnesses detailed that Kangogo approached him on the eve of her death and wanted to board his PSV to Anin, her parent's home. She had a face mask and had also covered herself with a maroon scarf. She stood behind his matatu for a while before she left but came back and boarded another matatu.
The driver sounded an alarm and informed his colleagues that he had identified the suspect as Kangogo, a familiar police officer in the area. He reached out to a police officer via phone call and informed him that he had spotted Kangogo. The officer, who was in Nairobi and not in Elgeyo, reportedly told him that Kangogo withdrew money from a Police Sacco in Nairobi on Thursday, July 8.
The driver explained that he feared reporting the case to the nearest police station owing to the wrangles between PSV operators and police in the region. They harass and at times misinterpret our statements whenever we report cases, he alleged.
They were also aware that Kangogo sent a message to her brother who was wary of her whereabouts. She told the brother that 'I am safe where I am,' he added.
On Friday morning, July 16, the two eyewitnesses added that they saw a contingent of police officers rushing towards Anin, Kangogo's home after they heard that she had committed suicide. She shouldn't have committed suicide. I spoke with her friends from Elgeyo Marakwet who told me that the men she allegedly murdered owed her Ksh2.7 million.
According to Rift Valley Regional Commissioner George Natembeya, the officer arrived at her parent's home at 5 am, on Friday, July 16, and headed straight to the bathroom where she allegedly took her own life. The police didn't have information on whether she spoke to the parents as she appeared out of the blue.
Her father, former police officer, Barnaba Kibor, declined to comment on his daughter's death and asked that he and the family's privacy be respected. I have nothing to say at this moment, a distraught Kibor stated.
The fugitive was wanted for the death of two men; a police officer John Ogweno in Nakuru County and security expert Peter Ndigwa in Juja, Kiambu County. She left a suicide note explaining that she fell out with the father, husband, a Nakuru OCS, and the two men she killed.
By JOHN MBATI
