Kahawa, Kenya — Abduction Charges Dropped as High Court Murder Trial Against SSU Officers Moves Forward

In a pivotal development in one of Kenya’s most closely watched cases involving alleged police misconduct, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) has formally dropped abduction charges against 15 officers of the now-defunct Special Service Unit (SSU), clearing the path for a murder trial to proceed in the High Court.

The officers are accused of involvement in the enforced disappearance and suspected killing of two Indian nationals — Zulfiqar Khan and Mohamed Zaid — along with their Kenyan taxi driver, Nicodemus Mwania. The trio went missing in July 2022 while in Nairobi, triggering diplomatic concern and intensifying scrutiny of rogue elements within the country’s elite police formations.

Appearing before the Kahawa Law Courts on Monday, state prosecutors informed the court that the abduction counts had been withdrawn, allowing the case to be consolidated under the more serious charge of murder. The move reflects what sources close to the prosecution describe as a “strategic realignment” of the case to ensure focus on the capital offences backed by forensic and circumstantial evidence.

The disbandment of the SSU — an elite unit under the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) — was ordered by President William Ruto in late 2022 following mounting accusations of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances attributed to the unit. The Kahawa case has since become symbolic of Kenya’s struggle to reform its security sector while balancing national security with human rights.

Legal analysts say the decision to drop abduction charges may be aimed at streamlining the case for trial efficiency, but it also raises questions about prosecutorial discretion and the threshold for securing convictions in complex, high-stakes cases involving state agents.

The High Court trial is expected to test not only the strength of Kenya’s investigative and judicial frameworks but also the political will to hold powerful security operatives accountable. Human rights groups, both local and international, have called for transparency and justice, emphasizing that the case must not become another statistic in Kenya’s long history of unresolved police brutality.

As proceedings shift to the High Court, public attention remains sharply focused on whether the justice system can rise to meet this critical moment — and whether the families of the victims will finally see justice served.