Chris Obure is one of the suspects who have been arrested in connection with the murder of Kevin Omwenga. But the controversial city businessman is not new to drama. Obure has previously been involved in a series of gun incidents around the Kilimani area in Nairobi.
In 2017, he was arrested in Nairobi days after he was accused of threatening revelers with a gun outside B Club in Nairobi. Obure was accused of at least five cases involving misuse of firearm, especially outside night clubs, of which the police had been dragging their feet before taking any action. In this particular case, Obure had threatened to shoot a man at Kilimani’s B-Club.
According to a report that was made at Kilimani Police Station, Occurrence Book (OB) number 9/31/12/2016, Mr Obure had double-parked his black Range Rover, blocking other revelers. When he was called to move his car, he instead got infuriated, drew his gun and threatened to shoot the two customers.
He then smashed the driver’s window of a silver Volkswagen Passat. On November 2 in 2016, the same businessman threatened to shoot Mr Alex Lwin at Klub House along Ojijo road in Parklands but no action was taken.
Revealed: How underworld deals changed Kevin Omwenga’s lifestyle
Obure had in 2010 hit the headlines after he reportedly blew the whistle on what was termed as a gold scam. Apparently, he blew the whistle on the blood gold scams in Nairobi before fleeing the country for South Africa “in fear for his life”. The blood gold scams involved a network that spanned across the East Africa region.
Ironically, in the murder of Kevin Omwenga, Obure and his bodyguard Robert Obodo are suspected of shooting Omwenga over a fake gold deal gone wrong. Detectives suspect that Omwenga was involved in underworld deals, out of which a gold deal gone sour led to his death.
One set of sources says Omwenga, Bodo and Chris Obure were at Glo Jet’s offices on the first floor for the better part of Friday. They then retreated to Mr Omwenga’s house to celebrate what detectives believe was a fake gold deal they had executed.
Yet other sources point to a previous disagreement on splitting money from an alleged fake gold deal in March, where a down-payment was made by a buyer.
However, it seems that Obure has often found his way around the law.
For example, in the Kilimani area, questions were raised on why the police were unwilling to take action against the man despite complaints from members of the public. Reports said that after the shooting incident, his gun had been confiscated and handed over to the firearms licensing board. It is not clear how he got it back.
In June last year, a court in Nairobi allowed the request by the Assets Recovery Authority (ARA) to freeze two accounts belonging to a law firm for suspicion of holding money on behalf of fake gold suspects Jared Otieno and Chris Obure.
Principal magistrate Martha Nanzushi allowed the application to freeze the accounts at two local banks belonging to Okundi & Company Advocates for three months. The accounts were said to hold over Sh. 300 million on behalf of the two.
