Detectives sent to Murang’a in probe over student’s death

Homicide detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations’ (DCI) headquarters have been deployed to Kangema in Murang’a County to review the status of investigations into the death of a student from Michuki Technical Training Institute whose body was retrieved from a river last month.

Mathioya Criminal Investigations Officer Githae Muriuki told the Nation that the two detectives wanted to know the status of the investigations, a week after Murang’a Senator Irungu Kang’ata wrote to the DCI demanding to know why a male student who is said to have accompanied Ms Wanjiku to the river only for him to return alone, had not been arrested for questioning.

PUBLIC INQUEST

Mr Muriuki said they have opened charges against the male student identified as Patrick Njiru Omondi, but they applied to have the case put under public inquest to establish whether there is enough evidence to charge the suspect.

He told the Nation that the hearing of the public inquest is slated for December 3 at Kangema Law Courts and refuted claims that they are taking long to conclude investigations.

“Due to the intensity of the matter, we applied to put the case under public inquest to establish whether the evidence levelled against the suspect is enough for him to stand trial,” he said.

POST-MORTEM

A post-mortem on Ms Wanjiku’s body revealed that she had been raped and her cervical joints fractured before being dumped into the river.

Senator Kang’ata, in a letter dated October 9, decried the slow pace of investigations and failure to arrest and prefer murder charges against the suspect, saying his statement to the Institute’s management and the post-mortem results were enough to charge him.

“Despite the overwhelming evidence attributed to the concealment of the alleged drowning by the fellow student and [him] being found with her phone and keys, the pace of investigations has been slow,” Mr Kang’ata said in his letter to the DCI.