A man accused of murdering a seven-year-old girl and burying her body under his bed in Nyeri’s Witemere slums has pleaded guilty to the offence.
Nicholas Julius Macharia, a porter at Nyeri Town Market, is accused of killing seven-year-old Tamara Blessing and hiding her body beneath a bed inside his house.
Tamara had been reported missing for two days from May 24, 2025.On the day she went missing, she was playing outside the Nyeri open air market where the mother is a trader.
She was last seen with the accused on the evening of May 24. CCTV footage captured the two walking towards the accused's home.
Appearing before High Court Judge Justice Magare Kizito on Thursday, Macharia sought to overturn his July 24, 2025 plea when he denied the murder charge.
Nicholas Macharia, 39, appears before the High Court in Nyeri on June 12, 2025, where he was accused of the murder of nine-year-old Tamara Blessing.
Photo credit: Joseph Kanyi | Nation
However, on Thursday when the suit was scheduled to proceed for a hearing, his lawyer Mahugu Mbarire, instead requested the court to read for the accused the charge afresh.
“In readiness for the hearing, I have conferred with my client and we are requesting that the information be read again because he intends to change his plea,” Mr Mbarire told the court.
Court documents state that Macharia is accused of killing Tamara on May 24, 2025.
During the court session, the prosecution however requested for seven days to familiarise itself with the matter.
The prosecution counsel handling the suit told the court he was new at the station and needed time to review the facts, including how the incident was reported and the evidence against the accused.
The facts of the case are supposed to be read to the accused alongside the murder charge, during plea taking.
“This is a complex matter and at the moment I do not wish to rely on any other form of reports. I need to write a good summary of the case before I present them in court,” he said.
The parties in the suit including the victim’s family, the National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC) and the accused, told the court that they were not opposed to the prosecution’s request.
Tamara Blessing, 7, who was killed in Nyeri town.
Photo credit: Joseph Kanyi | Nation
On June 12, 2025, when he was first presented before the court and pleaded guilty, Justice Kizito declined to record the plea and instead gave him time to reflect on the gravity and legal consequences of the capital offence.
The judge noted that Nicholas had been assigned his lawyer only 30 minutes before the court session.
“The accused will return to King’ong’o GK Prison and appear again in court on July 29 for plea retaking. We are trying to avoid a situation where the accused moves to the Court of Appeal on grounds that the circumstances under which he took the plea were irregular,” Justice Kizito said.
When he later appeared before the court on July 22, 2025, Nicholas denied the murder charge.
The court noted that the accused had only taken plea twice since the first guilty plea was not officially recorded by the court because of the circumstances surrounding it.
Among the witnesses who had appeared before court for the hearing was Susan Wacuka, a tea hawker who operated near the Nyeri Town Market and had seen Tamara with Nicholas that Saturday evening as they headed towards Witemere slums.
Speaking to Nation.Africa after the court session, Tamara’s father Kelvin Nyaga said the family hoped justice would finally be served.
“It has been a very long and painful journey and now as we head towards the conclusion of this case, we hope we shall get justice so that, as a family, we can continue with the healing process,” he said.
