Kilimani has been bidding with criminal activities in Nairobi for time now so it didn’t come as a surprise when the police raided the house of one Ken Wycliff Okello Lugwili and found what they didn’t expect.
According to police, 22 firearms and 565 rounds of ammunition were recovered at an office belonging to Lugwili during an auctioneering exercise at the said premises in Nairobi’s Kilimani suburbs.
Lugwili, who is linked to a company called Vic. Tecnologies, is said to have accumulated rent arrears amounting to Ksh.4,962,990 prompting the landlord, Ballon Wanjala Nangalama, to seek a court order allowing him to break into the premise and auction off Lugwili’s property.
On Tuesday night, police officers accompanied a team of auctioneers to the premise where they were met with shock after they discovered an armoury in one of the rooms which contained an assortment of weapons.
Range of weapons recovered from Lugwili’s house.
They included nine escort magnum short guns, one Benelli short gun, five Guatro short guns, one savage short gun, six Walter pistols, and a total of 565 ammunition of assorted different calibres.
The police added that they found: “25 pistol holsters, 9 double magazine carriers, 6 single magazine carriers, 30 slings, 5 sniper altimeters, 10 sniper torches, and a certificate of registration as a firearm dealer.”
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in a statement, however, said that his license was suspended over 3 years ago.
The Anti-Terror Police Unit (ATPU) has taken over the case for further investigations.
Criminal Path
Lugwili has had a dark past according to easily accessible information from basic online search and it’s puzzling as to how he has been able to evade the intelligence dragnet to continue selling firearms despite his license having expired, more disturbing is the fact that he attained the license despite his criminal record going to show how corruption erodes the system.
He allegedly deals on drug trafficking and fake currencies fraud popularly known as wash wash.
In 2019, he was arrested alongside others for his engagement in fake currency dealings.
He’s said to have used his Mercedes to dump the body one Mercy Keino who died mysteriously after an altercation with William Kabogo. The case dragged in court with the former governor being accused of being behind her death.
His first major collision with authorities was 16 years ago when was he sentenced to nine years on September 9, 2003, for defrauding various businessmen while impersonating Mr Alfred Gitonga, who was then an aide to former President Mwai Kibaki.
His sentence, however, translated to three years as the sentences were to run concurrently.
A month later, he was sentenced to two years in prison for trying to defraud former Kenya Pipeline managing director Ezekiel Komen of Sh20,000.
Conman Lugwili when he surrendered to the DCI.
What crowned his criminal activities in the city is when he presented himself to the police to deny claims that his Mercedes Benz dumped the body of Mercy Keino on Waiyaki Way on the night of June 7, 2011, when the university student died under mysterious circumstances.
He denied any wrongdoing, saying that he only saw the body on the road and swerved to avoid it.
He has been mentioned in several fraudulent land deals mostly targeting foreigners.
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