Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA), Tabuga Church in Bahati, Nakuru County where Rev Julius Ndumia (inset) was found murdered in his house on May 4, 2026.
Four gangsters who killed a clergyman in Lanet, Nakuru county withdrew Sh60,000 from his mobile phone a few hours after the brutal attack.
The money was fraudulently withdrawn from various M-Pesa outlets in Nakuru town, according to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), which is investigating the incident.
Chilling details of how Reverend Julius Ndumia of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) Tabuga Parish in Lanet, Nakuru county was attacked by the four men disguised as police officers on March 3, have also emerged.
Felix Okumu and Beryl Nafula appeared at Nakuru Law Courts on May 11, 2026, where they were charged in connection with the murder of Rev Julius Ndumia of the Tabuga PCEA Church.
Two of the suspects have since been arrested by the police, with a court directing they be held in custody for 21 days ahead of plea taking, while two others are said to be on the run.
In an apparent attempt to conceal their identity, and avoid raising suspicion over high transactions, the suspects moved around Nakuru town, withdrawing small amounts of money, sometimes less than Sh2,000.
“The suspects appeared to understand how mobile money tracking works. They avoided making a single large withdrawal and instead moved from one M-Pesa shop to another in a bid to disguise their crime,” said a detective privy to the ongoing investigations.
It has also emerged that investigators are pursuing leads on the M-Pesa agents who handled the transactions as they seek to establish whether proper identification procedures were followed during the withdrawals.
The detectives realized the fraudulent transactions had been done by the suspects, following a forensic analysis of the mobile phone belonging to the clergyman, that was stolen by the suspects following the attack.
Detectives have pieced together the last moments of the clergyman who was resting inside his official residence at the church compound, unaware of the lurking danger – as his attackers plotted a forced entry that would later cost his life.
A detective familiar with the ongoing investigations has revealed to the Nation that on the night of the attack four assailants armed with crude weapons broke into the compound before carrying out the mission under the cover of darkness.
The detectives have obtained footage from CCTV facilities mounted in the church, which place the suspects in custody at scene of the crime on the fateful night.
Held hostage
To gain entry to the compound, the four attackers first targeted the security guard on duty – Bernard Nyamwaka – who was held hostage, tortured him for over 20 minutes and forced him to lead them to the official residence of the clergyman.
The gang frog marched the injured guard to the cleric’s house, some 200 metres from the main gate to the church, where they passed themselves off as police officers conducting an operation in the area, so as to gain confidence of the clergyman’s house where they committed the heinous act.
“The gang of four pretended to be police officers who wanted to conduct a search in the pastor’s house. When he heard that they were officers, he just let them in without much questions, unaware that they would be killing him in a short while” A detective involved in the investigations, said.
He revealed “Once inside the house, they launched the violent attack against Reverend Ndumia and the night guard, ransacked the house for several hours before fleeing the scene with valuables, without an alarm having been raised."
The attackers first tied the hands and legs of the two victims and placed them metres apart in the living room, where they tortured them, and inflicted serious injuries.
Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA), Tabuga Church in Bahati, Nakuru County where Rev Julius Ndumia was found murdered in his house on May 4, 2026.
In the aftermath, Reverend Ndumia lay dead in the house, as Nyamwaka who was supposed to be guarding him, fighting for his life, all night long, before the shocking discovery was made by an Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) teacher reporting to duty the following morning.
Reverend Ndumia sustained deep cuts on the head and back of the neck, and his body was found in a pool of blood in the living room, suggesting he might have been attacked using an axe.
The security guard was taken to Nakuru Teaching and Referral Hospital where he was treated, later discharged and accorded witness protection by the police as the investigations continued.
It has not been revealed so far what the suspects may have been after at the clergyman's official residence. By the time of the attack, Reverend Mundia who has been described as a lovable man lived alone in the house at the church compoind.
Two suspects arrested at the weekend - Beryl Nafula Otenyo and Felix Odinga Okumu - appeared before Senior Magistrate Okullo Amelea Awino on Monday, but plea taking was deferred with the DCI successfully seeking orders to detain them for 21 days to allow for investigations to be completed.
In a sworn affidavit the investigating officer Inspector Geoffrey Tegei told the court that Nafula and Odinga were arrested on May 8, and pleaded with the court to be granted 30 days.
During the period, he said that they intend to collect DNA samples from the suspects for comparison with the exhibits that were recovered from the scene of crime and have been forwarded to Government Chemists for DNA analysis.
According to Inspector Tegei during the arrest, the two suspects were found in possession of the mobile phone belonging to the cleric and sim cards and that they need time to forward them to the National Forensic Laboratory for analysis.
Detectives are also investigating suspected fraudulent financial transactions done through the mobile phone belonging to the murdered clergyman, after the attack.
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