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Gachagua Links Ng’eno Death To His Secret Recording In Kisumu Hotel, Demands FBI, Scotland Yard Probe

Former deputy president says slain MP was threatened into impeaching him after spy agency bugged their Acacia Premier Hotel room

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Gachagua called for a transparent and independent investigation into the fatal helicopter crash that claimed Ng’eno’s life and five others/Rigathi Gachagua

NYANDARUA, Kenya — Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua dropped a political bombshell on Sunday when he directly linked the death of Emurua Dikirr MP Johana Ng’eno to National Intelligence Service surveillance and alleged political intimidation by President William Ruto’s government, demanding that the FBI and the UK’s Scotland Yard take over the crash investigation because Kenyan institutions cannot be trusted.

Speaking at an AIPCA church service in Nyandarua North Diocese barely 24 hours after the fatal helicopter crash that killed Ng’eno and five others in Mosop, Nandi County, Gachagua made the most explosive claims yet about what he described as a systematic campaign to silence political dissidents within the ruling establishment.

“He came to me in Kisumu, and we talked. Immediately after, the recording was taken to the President, and he was thoroughly intimidated,” Gachagua told the gathering, flanked by a formidable opposition bloc comprising Kalonzo Musyoka, Justin Muturi, former Interior CS Fred Matiang’i, and Eugene Wamalwa.

Gachagua alleged that on August 30, 2024, Ng’eno secretly visited him at the Acacia Premier Hotel in Kisumu to warn him about destabilisation plots within government. According to Gachagua, NIS operatives bugged the hotel room and recorded the entire conversation, which was then relayed to President Ruto. What followed, he claimed, was a sustained campaign of intimidation against the MP that ultimately forced his hand during the October 2024 impeachment vote.

The allegation gains a chilling dimension in light of a June 2025 radio interview on Hot 96 in which Ng’eno himself described being abducted from his constituency and driven through several towns, including Sotik, Nyamira, and Kisii, before being taken into a forested area, his hands bound to the rails of a Land Cruiser. The late MP recounted that the ordeal began at a police station where he was held from morning until 10 p.m., after which an unidentified team arrived and removed him under cover of darkness. He died without ever publicly naming those responsible.

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Gachagua told the congregation that Ng’eno appeared at his door at 2 a.m. in tears, carrying threatening messages directly from Ruto. “I told him the die was cast — even if he did not sign, it would change nothing. Instead of endangering you and your life, and your family, just go ahead and sign. He signed with a lot of tears,” Gachagua recalled, his voice heavy with emotion. Ng’eno was among the 281 National Assembly members who voted to impeach Gachagua on October 8, 2024. The Senate confirmed the removal on October 17.

The fatal crash occurred on February 28, 2026, at approximately 4:30 p.m. when a Eurocopter AS350, registration 5Y-DSB, operated by Royal Media Services, went down in the Chepkiep area of Mosop Sub-county, Nandi County, shortly after departing Endebess en route to Mosoriot. The aircraft burst into flames on impact near Chepkieb Primary School in a densely forested area. All six on board perished: Ng’eno himself, pilot George Were, Kenya Forest Service ranger Amos Kipngetich Rotich, the MP’s cameraman Nick Kosgey, teacher Robert Kipkoech Keter, and Narok County protocol officer Wycliffe Kiprotich Rono. Bodies were so severely damaged that Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital initially struggled to identify the victims.

The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority confirmed it has activated its Aircraft Accident Investigation Department, with preliminary indicators pointing to adverse weather conditions as a possible contributing factor. Heavy rainfall was reported in the area at the time of the crash.

A scene where a chopper crashed at Chepkiep Village in Mosop Sub-County of Nandi County on February 28, 2026, where six occupants died on the spot.

Gachagua rubbished those findings as premature and demanded that Interior CS Kipchumba Murkomen be immediately removed from any oversight role. “Kipchumba Murkomen cannot remain Interior CS while the family of Ng’eno, the Kipsigis community, and Kenyans expect fair and transparent investigations,” he said, calling on President Ruto to order Murkomen to step aside. Murkomen had himself paid tribute to Ng’eno after the crash, describing him as a dedicated leader.

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The former deputy president drew a haunting parallel to the 2008 helicopter crash that killed prominent Kipsigis leader and then-Roads Minister Kipkalya Kones, suggesting a disturbing pattern of prominent leaders from the community dying in air accidents. The comparison is calculated to resonate deeply with the Kipsigis community, for whom Kones remains a towering figure whose death was never fully explained to public satisfaction.

The Sunday allegations are not Gachagua’s first against the NIS over the Kisumu hotel incident. In 2024, after his impeachment, he publicly claimed that NIS operatives had not only bugged his room on August 30 but also attempted to poison his meal during the same visit, marking what he described as the first of two assassination attempts against him. A second alleged attempt, he claimed, occurred in Nyeri on September 30. He subsequently dismissed all security officers assigned to him, saying he no longer trusted the state’s protection apparatus. Those earlier claims prompted the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to summon him for questioning.

The government and NIS have offered no response to the renewed allegations. State House had not issued a statement on Gachagua’s Sunday remarks by the time of publication.

National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula formally notified Parliament of Ng’eno’s death, describing it as a profound loss to the House. Ng’eno, 54, was serving his third term as MP and chaired the Departmental Committee on Housing, Urban Planning, and Public Works. Mumias East MP Peter Salasya captured the national mood in a tribute: “RIP Hon. Ngeno. You went out to stand with flood victims — a true servant leader till the very end.”

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President Ruto offered a personal tribute of his own, describing Ng’eno as “focused, vocal, and fearless,” adding that the MP worked tirelessly on behalf of his constituents in Emurua Dikirr. The tribute from the man Gachagua accuses of ordering surveillance and intimidation against the dead MP went unremarked upon by the opposition.

With Gachagua now openly calling for international investigative agencies to bypass Kenya’s own institutions, and with Ng’eno’s own documented account of alleged abduction lending credibility to claims of political pressure, the crash in the forests of Nandi County threatens to become far more than a tragic aviation accident. For the Kipsigis community and a watching nation, the question of what happened on that foggy February afternoon may not be answered as easily as a weather report suggests.

The AAID investigation continues.

The body of Emurua Dikirr MP Johana Ng’eno is loaded onto a plane at Eldoret International Airport in Uasin Gishu County, and taken to Nairobi on March 01, 2026, after the legislator and five other people died in a chopper crash at Chepkiep Village in Mosop Sub-County of Nandi County on Saturday. Four bodies were also flown to Nairobi while that of the pilot was taken to western region.


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