Court detains suspect in murder of MKU student for 14 days

A Thika court has granted an application by police to hold a suspect in the murder of a university student.

David Kioko was arraigned before Thika Chief Magistrate Phillip Mutua on Tuesday, where the investigating officer, Oscar Limo, applied to hold the suspect for 21 days to allow the completion of investigations.

Kioko is accused of killing Faith Musembi, 19, a first-year student at Mount Kenya University at her rented apartment in Pilot estate on Wednesday night last week.

The investigating officer, while making the application, said the officers needed time to conduct another autopsy to collect more samples.

He also noted that the officers will be subjecting the suspect to mental assessment and also record witness statements.

Limo said detectives are still working to recover the deceased’s mobile phone which will later be subjected to forensic analysis.

“We want to complete the investigations and compile a comprehensive report and the same will be forwarded to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions,” he said.

Justice Mutua granted the application noting that the matter is of public interest. He, however, noted that the suspect will be held at Thika police station for 14 days.

The matter will be mentioned on May 28.

Some of the messages that the suspect sent using the deceased’s phone read; “Can you tell the mother to cooperate and have her daughter back or she dies with her unborn child? And take it with the seriousness it deserves.”

Joseph Kinaka, the deceased's uncle, said he sent a WhatsApp message to the girl’s phone on Thursday morning and received a response demanding a ransom of Sh33,000 or Faith's life.

Kinaka said after engaging the individual who was in possession of the phone, they sent him a photo of the deceased. However, on examining the photo closely, he saw blood oozing from her nose and that she had bit her tongue.

He said he confronted the individual who later admitted to having killed the student. The girl’s phone when tracked was found to be operating from Nairobi CBD.

An autopsy conducted at Thika General Kago Funeral Home, where the body is, indicated that she succumbed to excessive bleeding.

The report indicated that she had bleeding in the uterus caused by abruptial placenta (the placenta had detached itself leading to excessive bleeding).