Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir has been dragged into a case where four suspects were charged with rape and abduction of a blogger.
The four, Ms Esther Muthoni John, alias Totoo, Ms Violet Adera, alias Vayoo, Mr Abdul Hassan Athman, Alias Sindimba, and Haji Babu Ndau Mohamed, alias Achkobe, alias Jay, were presented before the Shanzu court where they denied the charges.
They were jointly charged with the offence of conspiracy to commit a felony, where the state alleged that the four conspired to abduct the blogger identified in court as BJK.
The state alleges that the four committed the offence on September 12, at an unknown place, jointly with others who are yet to be arrested.
The four were also charged with the offence of abduction with intent to confine, where the state alleges that the suspects abducted the victim with intent to cause him to be secretly and wrongfully confined.
The court heard that the suspects abducted the victim at Bamburi Jitegemee area in Kisauni.
Mr Athman and Mr Mohamed are separately charged with the offence of gang rape where they are accused of sexually assaulting BJK.
The two were also charged with assaulting the blogger using kicks and fists and injuring him.
The four suspects however denied the charges when they appeared before Shanzu Senior Resident Magistrate Robert Mbogo.
The court was told that Mr Nassir and his mother are among those expected to record statements with the police as investigations into the allegations of abduction and gang rape of the blogger intensifies.
The court heard that more efforts were underway to record the statements as it also emerged that there may have been attempts to aid more suspects who had been adversely mentioned in the crime to escape justice by going into hiding.
“More efforts are underway to arrest the remaining suspects and recording statements, including that of Mr Nassir, his mother, and other senior and prominent Mombasa county officials who we have intelligence report that they are assisting some of the suspects to go into hiding,” Corporal Irene Karuga stated.
The officer said she could only confirm this intelligence report by analysing communication between the persons of interest in the case.
Ms Karuga said that the investigators are currently looking for at least 15 people who are suspected to have been involved in the abduction and gang rape of the blogger.
“Their communication has since gone off air since the first arrest. We have only managed to arrest four suspects out of the possible 15 who were mentioned,” she told the court while being guided by the prosecution counsel Anthony Musyoka.
Documents filed in court show that this month, the victim posted on his Tik Tok account a video clip which he had recorded himself criticising Mr Nassir.
The filed document further shows that the clip went viral drawing anger from a section of social media users.
“This is suspected to be the reason of the abduction and later gang rape which was subjected to the complainant,” said Ms Karuga.
The court heard that the victim was at his house when a gang got its way inside his house and he was in a position to identify some of them.
