Murdered taxi driver Victoria Mumbua Muloki, whose body was found at City Mortuary in Nairobi County, died after being beaten repeatedly with a blunt object before being strangled to death, an autopsy has revealed.
The post-mortem, which was performed by government pathologist Johansen Oduor, also revealed that the late Mumbua fought her attacker— suggesting that she tried to protect herself.
On Thursday, Dr Oduor told the Nation that the mother of three also had physical injuries on her body and that “her killer had acted deliberately.”
“The injuries suggest a struggle, highlighting the intentional nature of the attack,” Dr Oduor said.
“As a result of my examination, I formed the opinion that the cause of death of Mumbua had several injuries, which included a severe head injury. The assailant hit her several times on the head. Further to that, the assailant later strangled her to death. There were also what looked like defensive injuries along the arms, meaning she was trying to defend herself.”
Dr Oduor also said that further tests were being carried out on more samples, which are crucial for investigators to piece together the crime.
Vaginal swabs were also taken for analysis to establish whether she was poisoned or sexually assaulted before she died.
The exercise was conducted on Wednesday in the presence of the deceased’s family members and the police.
“The family of the deceased want to know if she was poisoned or sexually assaulted,” he said.
While Mumbua's family awaits full results, homicide detectives investigating her murder are planning to revisit all the crime scenes to gather CCTV footage and forensically link the suspect to the locations.
The 35-year-old taxi driver from Mombasa county disappeared after taking a client from Mombasa to Samburu, Kwale County, on September 27, only for her body to be found at the City Mortuary in Nairobi.
Last week, her relatives positively identified her body at City Mortuary, where the remains were taken after being discovered on the Maai Mahiu-Naivasha highway.
An earlier, a police report had erroneously indicated that Mumbua was found alive but unconscious in Migori. However, it later emerged that this was not the case, with her family saying they had not been notified.
A suspect, Edwin Ngetich Kipkemoi, was arrested last Sunday at Pipeline Junction along the Nakuru-Nairobi highway while driving a white Nissan Serena, registration number KDQ 182F that belonged to the victim.
Ngetich has since led detectives to various locations, including Mt Elgon, Butere, Uasin Gishu, and Nakuru, where police have recovered five motor vehicles he was linked to.
According to Mumbua’s family, Ng’etich, a returning client had requested to be ferried to Samburu on Friday morning, claiming that he loved her services and the two agreed to leave Mombasa at 5am.
However, this time it was different as Ng'etich requested to do the trip offline. That was the last time Mumbua was seen alive.
Police believe along the way, Ng’etich attacked her, assaulting her several times and tying her to the back seat of the car.
He then took control of the vehicle and drove towards Nairobi. As they passed through Kibwezi, the mother of three pleaded for her release. The assailant reportedly stopped the car, strangled her and drove away with her body.
The suspect eventually drove to Mai Mahiu and dumped her body in a thicket near Lari, Kiambu County. After disposing of the victim's body, he drove her car to Nakuru where he was arrested and detained.
According to the detectives, the suspect has so far been linked to several other murders in the country, suggesting an alarming pattern of violence that points to him as a potential serial offender.
One of those crimes occurred in July 2024, when the suspect contracted another taxi driver before killing him, dumping his body and making away with his motor vehicle.
According to detectives, the suspect hired the slain taxi driver, George Njuguna, to drive him from Kisii to Nairobi. Somewhere along the way in Gilgil, police believe Ng'etich abducted his victim, murdered him and dumped his body in Gilgil before making off with his vehicle.
The vehicle was later sold to a third party in Nakuru and has since been recovered. Police also recovered another vehicle in Burnt Forest, Uasin Gishu County. Investigations revealed that the suspect opened up about the vehicle before taking them to its location.
Police are yet to establish the whereabouts of the owner of the vehicle. Investigators believe the suspect may be part of a group that targets drivers before killing them and stealing their vehicles.
