In Bombolulu village in Nairobi’s Kibera, at the point where you leave Kibera Drive to walk into the narrow path into the neighbourhood, life trickles, just like water from a broken pipe.
Residents are largely relaxed as the afternoon wears on. But everyone’s guard goes up when you mention a teenage suspect being sought by the police in connection with the September 15 murder of Nairobi Hospital Finance boss Eric Maigo.
It is in this village where the girl, whom police say is wanted in connection with the killing, has been living with her mother.
According to Kilimani police boss Moss Ndiwa, the search for the girl aged between 15 and 17 years is on.
“We’re making progress in our investigations and pursuing the suspect who is at large. But we’ll arrest her soon. I can’t tell specific areas where our detectives are narrowing down to, but as you know, a killer is always around the scene of crime,” the Kilimani OCPD told the Sunday Nation .
Some of those we spoke to claimed the suspect had not fled beyond the neighbourhood, while others alleged she had been spotted making her way home as late as Friday evening.
The house where the suspect in Eric Maigo’s murder has been living with her mother in Kibera.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group
On Friday, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) announced that the girl, allegedly caught on camera scaling a wall, had formerly been at the Dagoretti Approved School, formally known as the Dagoretti Girls Rehabilitation School.
According to Kenyan laws, a child joins such a school on the orders of a court.
As friends and family reel in shock from the revelation that the teen is a prime suspect in the murder, a source has intimated to the Sunday Nation that footprints at the scene of crime suggest the existence of more than one person at the spot where Dr Maigo was found dead.
But how come Dr Maigo, 38, was so defenceless as his chest, neck and face were stabbed 25 times, supposedly by a teenage assailant?
That is one of the questions investigators will be seeking answers for as they also check to clear any suspicions linking the killing to his work.
Detectives at the bloodied scene are said to have decoded an element of confusion illustrated by the footprints left by the killer, who stepped on Dr Maigo’s blood while barefooted and walked about.
Detectives have recovered clothes believed to have been worn by the main suspect in the murder of Eric Maigo.
Photo credit: Courtesy
They also worked out that a knife, one of the two believed to have been the murder weapons, dropped some metres away from the body before it was later returned to the scene of crime.
As to whether the police have interrogated the Nairobi Hospital staff in relation to the gruesome murder of Dr Maigo, Mr Ndiwa, the officer commanding the Kilimani police division, said that will be handled by DCI officers.
While that unfolds, CCTV footage showing the suspect’s escape reveals that she confronted sharp razor wire as she left the scene of crime.
How did she manage to make her escape when it appeared there were people present as she scaled a fence?
What is the link between the suspect already produced in court over the murder and the teen being sought?
When the Sunday Nation visited the Kibera neighbourhood on Saturday (September 23), the door to the teenager’s family’s house was locked, with a pink curtain on the outside of the door. Neighbours were conversing in small groups, reluctant to reveal much about the suspect.
Another middle-aged woman, when asked to describe the kind of girl the suspect is, replied: “She was in school and came here only recently. We don’t know her much.”
A male neighbour retorted: “We were shocked to see it in the news. Amekuwanga tu area (She has just been around).”
Dr Maigo will be laid to rest at his home in Kisii County, according to a family member.
A requiem mass for the slain finance chief was held at the Nairobi Hospital on Friday afternoon, but the media was locked out.
