• The investigating officer, in a sworn affidavit, requested the court to grant him 14 days to complete investigations.
• The officer told the court that he would need to pick samples from the suspect and carry out tests.
Image: BRIAN OJAMAA
A Kibabii University student accused of rape and attack will be detained for 14 days to allow for the completion of investigations.
Elijah Mwangirwa faces charges of raping and chopping off the hand of a third-year Bachelor of Science student from the same institution on November 22. He was arrested on December 14 in Nairobi. The police say he had been on the run.
On Monday, he was driven to Bungoma and arraigned before chief magistrate John King’ori. The investigating officer, in a sworn affidavit, requested the court to grant him 14 days to complete investigations before the suspect is properly charged.
“He was planning to escape to Meru county when we arrested him in Nairobi and drove him to Bungoma county. I ask the court to grant me 14 more days to complete my investigations,” the affidavit reads.
The officer told the court that he would need to pick samples from the suspect and carry out tests to ascertain if he is the main suspect.
“Samples will be taken and tests carried out in a government chemist in Kisumu so I’m able to institute fresh charges against him,” he said.
The respondent pleaded to be released saying he is a law-abiding citizen and would turn up whenever needed by investigation officers.
“Your honour, I’m just available on a phone call whenever they need me,” Mwangirwa said.
The magistrate declined his request and ordered that he be locked up at the Bungoma police station, awaiting samples to be taken for testing.
The 21-year-old victim suffered the ordeal when she and her friends left a popular club where they had been for a night out. Her friends escaped. Her left hand was severed, wrapped in her bra and thrown on the roof of a neighbour’s house.
The 5am sexual assault happened 200 metres from her rented house in Kibabii town. The Renewable Energy major was rushed to Bungoma West Hospital, Kanduyi, in critical condition and later referred to St Luke’s Hospital in Eldoret.
A neighbour, Zaituni Shaban, found the severed arm at 6am wrapped in a bra on the roof of a house. She told her husband of the bizarre finding and he, in turn, reported to the police, who retrieved the hand from the roof.
“At 5am, we heard a woman scream for help, but my husband and I feared to go out. At 6am, I went out of the house and saw something that resembled a human being’s arm wrapped in a bra on a neighbour’s roof.
“We later learnt that the limb was that of a neighbour, a Third Year student at Kibabii University.”
The twists and turns in the investigations are an indication of the efforts the police are putting in place to ensure perpetrators are brought to book.
An Administration Police officer attached to Tuuti AP post in Kibabii location, Kanduyi, Bungoma county, had also been arraigned on November 25 after he was nabbed by officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations in Bungoma. Constable Eric Mutama was accused of raping and chopping off the hand of the student.
The young policeman joined the service in 2017 and had allegedly been dating the student for a while.
Bungoma police commander Mutungi Musyoki said the two, together with other friends, had been at a local club before the club’s DJ began to woo the student.
(Edited by F'Orieny)