One of the suspects in the murder of university student Rita Waeni bought a hatchet from an online vendor claiming it was for self-defence, detectives have established.
Police believe the weapon was used during the murder of the 20-year-old woman whose decapitated body was found in an apartment at Kasarani.
Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) have also established that the two Nigerians suspected of killing Waeni and dismembering her body at a short-term rental apartment on TRM Drive in Roysambu, Nairobi, before disappearing with her head were living illegally in Kenya .
The two are William Ovie Opia, whose passport is expired, and Johnbull Asbor, who, according to the DCI, had no travel documents at the time of his arrest. Mr Asbor told detectives that he lost his passport two years ago.
Nigerians suspected of killing and dismembering the body of Rita Waeni at the Makadara Law Courts on January 22, 2024.
Photo credit: Joseph Ndunda | Nation Media Group
According to a police affidavit, Mr Opia bought a hatchet online and told investigators he wanted it for self-defence.
The suspects were traced by detectives from the DCI's Criminal Research and Intelligence Bureau (Crib) to a flat in Ndenderu, Kiambu County, from where they were picked up on Sunday.
Detective Constable Benjamin Wangila of the DCI's Kasarani office told a Makadra court yesterday that the suspects lived not far from the area where Waeni's head was recovered.
A hatchet, a butcher's knife, a national identity card belonging to a Kenyan (name withheld), six mobile phones, three laptops, 10 Sim cards from different telecommunication service providers and other items were recovered from the house where the two suspects were living.
"The investigating team seeks to obtain call records of all the Sim cards and [mobile] phone numbers recovered from the respondents to ascertain whether they were involved in the murder," Mr Wangila said in an affidavit filed in court.
"The applicant needs adequate time to escort the respondents to the Government Chemist for collection of their blood samples for DNA analysis and comparison with the samples collected from the crime scene."
Family breaks silence over killing of 20-year-old Rita Waeni
Terming the suspects flight risks as they don't have a known permanent residence, Mr Wangila sought orders to hold them for eight days at Kasarani Police Station, an application that was granted by Senior Principal Magistrate Agnes Mwangi of the Makadara Law Courts.
Mr Wangila said he was investigating a case of murder contrary to Section 203 read with Section 204 of the Penal Code, which was reported at Kasarani Police Station under OB34/14/01/2024 by Ms Priscila Maina, the owner of the short-term rental apartment where Ms Waeni was killed.
Ms Maina, who is in custody, told the police that she received information from the caretaker at the building that there were traces of blood from her house to a garbage collection point on the ground floor where the body parts were found hidden in garbage bags. The head was missing.
Ms Maina is in custody for failing to register her tenants’ vital details as required by law, which would have helped the DCI track down the killer.
Waeni's family was unable to identify her head at City Mortuary on Monday, although the DCI said it had been recovered from a dam in Kiambu on Sunday and booked as belonging to an unknown adult female.
The head was found covered in a sack and wrapped in a purple blouse, adding an eerie twist to the already gruesome scene.
A police report indicated that Karuri Chief Simon Kang’ethe had revealed to investigators that he received information from the village elder of Kimuga, Mr Joseph Thara, detailing the discovery by locals of a human head floating in Ite Dam.
The late Rita Waeni.
Photo credit: Handout
“[We] retrieved the head of an unknown female yesterday at Ite Dam in Kiambaa [on] Sunday around 5pm. [Locals] saw something unusual floating in the water and, when they got closer and unwrapped the carrier bag, noticed it was the head of a human being. The head has been taken to City Mortuary for forensics,” Kiambaa police commander Pius Mwandhi told Nation .
“We can't authoritatively say it's that of the Roysambu lady [Waeni] who was murdered ... until forensics are done.”
“The carrier bag that had wrapped the head had some stones in it meaning whoever had dumped the head there wanted it to sink never to be retrieved. No one has been arrested so far but investigations continue, ” the police boss added.
The dismembered body of the 20-year-old Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) student was discovered on January 14.
The dead woman’s body parts were found stashed in two refuse bags at the garbage collection point at the apartment building.
Other body parts were found wrapped in a white bed sheet bag on the ground floor of the same building.
According to Waeni’s family, the killer demanded a Sh500,000 ransom to free the woman.
“On Saturday (January 13), our daughter Rita Waeni Muendo left her aunt’s residence in Syokimau to meet with a friend,” the family’s spokesperson, Dr Lilian Mutea, said.
The family said they believed that they would eventually get justice. A post-mortem exam conducted on the body last Friday showed that her fingernails had been plucked out.
“The [murderer] also tried to pluck out her fingernails for reasons which I might not be able to know but, for us scientists, when we see fingernails clipped off, we think probably the person was trying to hide evidence so that we are unable to get his DNA from the victim,” Chief Government Pathologist Johansen Oduor told reporters after the autopsy.
On January 16, a man believed to be the main suspect in the murder was arrested at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) as he was about to leave the country but was later released.
