Detectives arrest suspect in yoghurt trader’s murder
Central Regional Commissioner Wilfred Nyagwanga, addresses a press conference outside his office in Nyeri town last year. He says suspect was arrested at his rental house in Maragua.
What you need to know:
- Detectives have arrested the prime suspect in the November 4, murder of a female yoghurt supplier in the region.
- Preliminary investigation report seen by Nation.Africa shows the suspect killed her at around 9am and dumped her at around 9.40am.
- Last week, Maendeleo ya Wanawake Organisation in the region had protested at the slow pace of investigations in the murder.
Detectives from Murang'a County have arrested the prime suspect in the November 4, murder of a female yoghurt supplier in the region.
Regional Commissioner Wilfred Nyagwanga has told Nation.Africa that he has been monitoring the investigations after the murder caused a public outcry.
"I'm happy to reveal that detectives from Murang'a County headquarters have arrested the deceased's former employee from his rental house in Maragua town," he said.
Mr Nyagwanga said the suspect has confessed that he ‘killed Catherine Njeri Kimathi because she sacked him, refused to pay and insulted him’.
The suspect reportedly killed her along Kenol-Murang'a road and drove her to where she was found inside her supply van.
Preliminary investigation report seen by Nation.Africa shows the suspect killed her at around 9am and dumped her at around 9.40am.
Dumping scene
"I took off with her phone and proceeded from the dumping scene to Maragua town where I took late breakfast in an eatery...I left the deceased's phone at the eatery's counter," the suspect writes in his statement.
Meanwhile, the eatery's attendants became suspicious of the man and after he had left, they took the phone to Maragua Police Station and reported it as "placed in our custody by a suspicious looking man."
Detectives following the phone's IMEI number and Sim Card signal extracted the information on its trail from the eatery to the station.
"It is then that the detectives dusted the fingerprints on the phone and using elimination method of all the prints, some, including those of the officer who received it, were left with those of the suspect now in custody.
"The prints were identified using collaboration with the Registrar of Persons...we were able to get the suspect’s picture and covert investigations identified the suspect and his rental abode," Murang'a County Investigations Officer David Kandie said.
Mysterious murder
He said this now unlocks the mysterious murder where the deceased had several stab wounds on her neck.
"The investigations are now centred on recovering the murder weapon as well as the clothes the suspect wore when he murdered the woman," he said.
The officers have since visited the primary scene where the murder took place as well as the secondary one where the body was dumped.
The body was found along the old Makenji-Kabati road off the main Thika Superhighway to Murang'a road. She had a store for her products in Maragua town where she had moved a month and half from Kenol town.
Without justice
Last week, Maendeleo ya Wanawake Organisation in the region had protested at the slow pace of investigations in the murder.
"It is our concern that the trend where women are murdered in this county and investigations drag on till we forget and the victims go without justice, is getting entrenched in our police department. We protest the lack of answers and any arrests so far, in this death," Chairperson Lucy Nyambura had said.
Murang'a Female Entrepreneurs Union Jessica Muthoni, had on Tuesday also said "we are putting the police on notice that women’s blood is not for game and we demand to be told who killed her and why."
