A crime scene tape.
The man being held by police in connection with the death of a 20-year-old college student, Joan Mbula Nzomo, at Thome estate in Kasarani on Saturday had spent five hours in the same room with another unidentified woman.
He then took in Mbula, a student at the Nairobi Aviation College, who died in mysterious circumstances a few hours later.
The Nation has established that the man, Lawrence Gitonga, 33, had booked the short-term apartment on Friday and at 6.30pm, he and another woman entered the room where they spent most of the evening. The mysterious woman left at 11pm.
Mr Gitonga left shortly afterwards and returned to the same room with Mbula at 3am.
Unlike the first woman, Mbula did not leave the room through the door.
Her body was found lying lifeless after she fell 25 metres from the balcony of the room on Saturday morning.
The next time the man was seen, he had eight stab wounds on his body, one on his back and the other seven on the chest.
He had locked himself in a bathroom when police found him in pain. This was after the officers had contacted the owner of the room to give them a spare key to gain access to the scene.
The suspect told the police that he had locked himself in the bathroom because he was bleeding so much, and feared he would die from the stab wounds allegedly inflicted by Mbula.
At this point in the initial police interrogation, he had no idea about the death of Mbula and even asked the police where she was.
All he told the police was that he remembered hitting and kicking the woman, who in turn stabbed him with a knife.
When he realised he was bleeding badly, he rushed to the bathroom and locked himself in. He said he could not remember anything else.
On Monday, police told the Nation that Mr Gitonga remains their prime suspect in the death of Mbula, who was a student at the Nairobi Aviation College.
He is currently recuperating at the Kenyatta National Hospital under police guard, and the officers said they would take him in as soon as he is cleared to leave the hospital to assist them with investigations.
Initial crime scene investigations have so far revealed that there were only two people in the apartment when Mbula and the suspect engaged in a scuffle.
"Analysis by the crime scene investigators revealed that there were only two sets of footprints in the blood-soaked room," said a senior officer at Kasarani Police Station.
It remains unclear whether the deceased was pushed over the balcony of the 10-floor flat in Thome.
Detectives are also investigating whether she died by suicide or fell accidentally while trying to escape from something threatening her.
Her mysterious death adds to the list of several other young women who have died in short-stay apartments in the country.
Mbula was half-naked when she fell from the 10 floor, and was wearing only a red shirt when her body was discovered.
Neighbours said they heard her screaming for help from the balcony of the house before she fell.
Police also noted that the deceased had no visible wounds.
As of Monday morning, no one had claimed Mbula's body at City Mortuary, but the Nation understands that her parents recorded their statement at Kasarani Police Station on Monday afternoon and went to the mortuary to identify their daughter.
Police have also revealed that the deceased and Mr Gitonga met at one of the entertainment joints along Mirema Drive in Roysambu Friday night.
At 3am, the duo went to the room the man had booked earlier.
"The man bought the lady a bottle of Gilbey's as he was also having another alcoholic drink. They then decided to go back to his room," an officer privy to the investigation into the case told this reporter.
What followed was Mbula's scream in the early hours of Saturday morning, her subsequent death and Mr Gitonga being found disoriented in the bathroom hours later.
Investigators are keen to find out what a post-mortem will reveal about the cause of her death, as they seek to establish the circumstances that led to her demise.
Given how disoriented Mr Gitonga was when he was found, officials are also awaiting the results of a blood test to see if he was high on drugs.
