On the morning of August 11, 2018, the body of Mariam Abdallah was found half naked inside a kibanda where her step-brother and other street boys lived in Bondeni, Nakuru County.
Police were called to the scene and took up investigations.
The body was on the floor covered with a blanket and upon uncovering her, a piece of cloth was tied to her neck.
The deceased’s step-brother, Jeff Musau Mutiso, was arrested in connection with her murder.
One of the men found near the scene told the police that the beddings inside the kibanda belonged to Mutiso who was his friend.
He then led the police to where Mutiso was and they arrested him. They went back with him to the scene and he confirmed to them that the beddings were his and the deceased was his girlfriend.
Pathologist George Biketi concluded that the cause of death was asphyxia due to upper air obstruction and spinal injury caused by strangulation.
DNA analysis by the government chemist found that semen on the deceased’s panty matched with the DNA specimen collected from Mutiso.
Mutiso denied the offence and the prosecution called eight witnesses including the government analyst Ms Margaret Wahu Maina who was the star witness in the case.
“If that was the undisputed findings by the witness one wonders why was the accused person’s (Mr. Mutiso’s) semen stains found on the deceased’s panty. The accused attempted to skirt around this issue in his defence evidence but I doubt whether he ousted that scientific findings,” Justice Hillary Chemitei ruled on Wednesday, November 23.
Mutiso, in his defence, said he was at Flamingo Estate taking chang’aa on that particular day but Justice Chemitei said there was no evidence to that effect.
However, the court found that Mutiso could not explain how his semen was found on the deceased’s panty.
“The accused herein did not vehemently attack the findings of the analyst. In other words, the issue of the DNA analysis was not challenged,” the judge said.
Justice Chemitei, guided by the evidence presented before the court, noted that there were no eyewitnesses to the incident and the last time the deceased was seen alive, was the afternoon of August 11, 2018 as when she told her sister she was going to her house.
“The motive for the killing of the deceased remains unknown taking into consideration that she was the accused’s step-sister. There was no evidence of any differences with her or generally the two families,” said Justice Chemitei.
