Female Police Constable Eunice Achieng’ Ogal has been missing since July 30, 2020.
Where is she? Is someone holding her? Was she murdered? These are some the questions her family have been asking themselves.
Ogal had joined the police service after skipping a chance to pursue a Bachelor of Education degree at the university after scoring a grade B (plain) in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) at Moi Suba Girls in Migori County.
She decided to take up a job as a police officer – and was stationed at the Nyanchwa Police station in Kitutu Central, Kisii County when she was reported missing.
It’s been one year
The case has remained a mystery even to her very own colleagues from the director of criminal investigations. It’s been one year since she went missing under mysterious circumstances.
According to a source who did not wish to be named, the events that followed her disappearance tell a tale of conspiracy and cover-up among her colleagues at the top echelons of the police service within where she was stationed.
“A number of officers were transferred immediately after her disappearance, including Director of Criminals Investigations Officers in the area. There is a belief that the case was intentionally bungled by some unscrupulous officers,” said the source.
Officers currently investigating the matter believe that Ogal may have been murdered – and her body buried in an undisclosed spot after she went missing on July 31, 2020.
Meeting with ex-husband
The last time she was seen alive, Ogal was in the company of her ex-husband John Owuor.
In a bizarre twist, Owuor was found dead in an apparent act of suicide just behind his homestead on August 5, 2020, at around 7.00am, a few days after Ogal went missing.
Ogal’s house help would later reveal that the Maasai Shuka Owuor had allegedly used to commit suicide, belonged to Ogal, and that she had worn it the last time she left home – and has never been seen again.
Does this mean that Owuor knew what may have happened to his ex-wife? Or did someone use Owuor to commit the murder, before killing him to end the trail?
Those are some of the questions investigators are grappling with.
Endless domestic squabbles
According to the investigative officers, it is possible some people may have used the ex-husband to get rid of Ogal, before also killing him – and staging it to look like an act of suicide.
Ogal and Owuor were married – but had gone their separate ways after their marriage failed to work due to endless domestic squabbles.
A Ksh250,000 loan Ogal reportedly took from the bank and gave Owuor – but which he refused to repay – was the last straw that broke the camel’s back.
Ogal is said to have left Owuor and settled don with another man just two weeks later.
According to investigative officers, Ogal had agreed to meet Owuor over the Ksh250,000 she had advanced him. He had apparently promised to pay her the money that same day – which is why she was meeting him.
The two are said to have met in Rongo town on July 30, 2020, at around 9.58am. It seems it was trap.
According to sources, Ogal’s mobile phone went off that same morning – and was only switched on the next day at 2pm. She used the phone to send a message to her house help asking her to take her children to her parents.
Who used her phone?
Someone would later use the phone to send abusive messages to Ogal’s elder sister – and her husband – a man she married after ending her marriage to Owuor.
The phone would later be traced to Nkararo in Transmara West before being switched off on the morning of July 31 – and was only switched on again on the night of July 31st with the signal traced to Rongo town, with signals showing that the individual with the phone was on transit from Rongo towards Kisii.
“This was the beginning of the endless wrangles in their marriage. Our family was opposed to their marriage because at some point in mid-2018, Owour had attempted to commit suicide as we sought to get back the money,” said her sister Akinyi.
According to Akinyi, Owour lied that he had bought a piece of land in Transmara using the Ksh250,000 and wanted to plant sugarcane.
According to Akinyi, her sister her told her about her plans to meet Owuor three days before she went missing.