The owner of the short-stay rental apartment along TRM Drive in Kasarani, Nairobi County, where a 20-year-old woman was killed and her body dismembered, will remain in custody for 10 days.
Priscila Maina was arrested together with three other suspects in a case involving the brutal murder of Rita Waeni Muendo at the rental apartment.
On Wednesday, Ms Maina was arraigned in court alongside Kelvin Mutiso, Eugene Omondi and Brian Kinoti. All four suspects will be held at Kasarani Police Station as police continue with the investigations.
Ms Maina was arrested for failure to register her tenant’s crucial details as required by the law, which would have helped the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officers in tracing the suspected killer.
The orders were granted by Senior Principal Magistrate Justus Kituku of Makadara Law Courts after Corporal Winnie Mworia of Kasarani DCI offices sought to have the suspects detained to aid in investigations.
While granting the application, Mr Kituku said the case is of great public interest in light of recent murders in short-stay rental apartments.
“There is no doubt that the nation’s psyche has been gripped by the increased cases of victims being lured and killed in rental apartments. The most recent unfortunate incident is now what is before the court,” the magistrate said.
The deceased’s body parts were found stashed in two refuse bags at the garbage collection point in the apartment.
Other body parts were found wrapped in a white bedsheet bag on the ground floor of the same apartment. Her head is yet to be recovered.
Defence lawyer Eunice Katila had opposed the application to detain Ms Maina, saying it was her client who reported the incident to the police. Her only mistake, the lawyer said, was failure to register the personal details of the client who booked the apartment.
The university student was killed and dismembered by an unidentified man who had rented the short-stay house on the first floor of Green House Apartments. The house had been rented by a middle-aged man who did not provide his particulars.
According to detectives from the DCI, Mutiso was found in house number B2 next to the one where the student was killed. He told the police that he had visited the house and spent the night there.
The detectives said at the time of his arrest Mutiso had what appeared to be traces of blood on and underneath his nails.
The other two suspects told the police that they spent time with Mutiso and had dinner together before they parted ways on the night the student is believed to have been killed.
Omondi, who is also a student at Jkuat, had visited his uncle who lives in the next house to the one where Waeni was killed.
Kinoti, who lives on the third floor of the apartment, had joined Mutiso and Omondi in to watch a football match before he returned to his house.
The lawyer of the three suspects, Steve Nyamu, also opposed the application, saying Ms Maina had given the phone number of the client who rented the house.
“Police are also in possession of CCTV footage showing the main suspect who does not resemble any of the three respondents,” he said.
Meanwhile, Cpl Mworia told the court that blood samples collected from the crime scene and the deceased would be subjected to DNA analysis at the Government Chemist.
The detective also said crucial witness statements from witnesses are yet to be recorded. The four suspects will be presented in court on January 25, 2024.
