Victor Ambanyi, 21, the main suspect in the murder in the murder of 78-year-old Catherine Wacheke Kimotho in Kasarani, Nairobi.
On Sunday morning, November 10, Moreen Chanzu , a domestic helper working for a retired civil servant in Njathaini, Kasarani, was preparing to leave her employer's house for her weekly off.
Chanzu had woken up early and prepared breakfast for her boss, Catherine Wacheke Kimotho, 78.
At around 9am, as Chanzu prepared to leave, she decided to check on her boss, who she thought was still asleep in her room.
She knocked on the bedroom door several times, but there was no answer.
Chanzu thought her employer had quietly left the house as she was busy in the kitchen preparing breakfast.
Only three people lived in this homestead -- Wacheke and her two workers.
Her five children, all grown up, had moved out.
The house help went to look for Wacheke around the property, including the cowshed and kitchen garden. But she was nowhere to be found.
Victor Ambanyi, 21, a farm worker who had reported for duty three weeks ago, was also not in the servants' quarters.
Chanzu, however, left in the hope that her boss would return home, just in case she had travelled without telling her.
When Chanzu returned home that evening, she noticed that something was wrong.
The breakfast she had prepared for Wacheke was untouched and none of her neighbours knew of her whereabouts.
In a panic, Chanzu called one of Wacheke's daughters, a lawyer in the city, to tell her that her mother was missing.
The following day, Monday, the family filed a missing person's report at Kasarani Police Station. Officers from the station, along with colleagues from Njathaini Police Station, visited the house in search of the missing grandmother.
Calls to Wacheke's mobile phone also went unanswered.
Around midday, the search ended in tragedy when police found Wacheke's body in a sack that had been placed in a septic tank on the property.
Crime scene investigators from the Nairobi area found that Wacheke had sustained injuries to the back of her head and blood was oozing from her mouth.
Preliminary investigations indicated that Wacheke may have been hit with a blunt object.
Kasarani DCI boss Justus Ombati told the Nation that following the discovery of Wacheke's body, investigations revealed that the missing farm worker could be behind the murder.
Chanzu told police that she did not witness any altercation on the day her boss disappeared.
However, she had been told that the missing farm worker was angry with their boss after money was deducted from his salary.
Wacheke deducted some money that had been advanced to him and also more money from his salary for allegedly adulterating milk.
Mr Ombati said the worker was eventually paid Sh1,000 out of an agreed salary of Sh8,000. The DCI believes this disagreement may have led to Wacheke's murder.
On Tuesday afternoon, detectives from the DCI Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau in Nairobi made a breakthrough in the search for the missing worker, Victor Ambanyi.
Detectives traced him to a house in Kinoo where he had been staying since Sunday.
Mr Ombati said that Ambanyi led police to a shop at Githurai 45 where a mobile phone belonging to the murdered woman was recovered.
The owner of the shop, who is also in police custody, told investigators that he bought the phone from Ambanyi for Sh3,500.
On Wednesday, Ambanyi was produced before the Makadara Chief Magistrate's Court, where police asked for more time to detain him and complete their investigations.
A post-mortem examination is scheduled for later this week to establish how Wacheke was killed.
