A court in Homa Bay has allowed police to hold a murder suspect for seven days as they complete investigations.
Silus Ouma Agit appeared before senior principal magistrate Thomas Obutu on Tuesday accused of killing Martin Owiti, a butchery operator at the Rodi Kopany trading centre in Homa Bay Town constituency.
He is said to have fled after the killing but was later arrested.
In an affidavit sworn by police constable Ben Wanyama who is attached to Homa Bay DCI headquarters, the police sought more time to continue probing the suspect.
Wanyama argued that there were some technicalities which could not allow their investigations to be complete in the 24 hours within which Agit should have been arraigned in court after being arrested.
Wanyama said he had not recorded statements from witnesses.
“Neither postmortem on the deceased’s body nor mental assessment of the suspect has been done. I pray to the court to grant us seven more days to enable us complete investigations,” he said.
The magistrate allowed police to continue detaining the suspect.
“The suspect is hereby ordered to be detained at Homa Bay police station for seven days,” Obutu ordered.
Agit reportedly stabbed the trader with a knife inside his butchery at about 9.35pm on Wednesday. The reason for the attack remains unknown.
It is reported that the suspect found Owiti in the butchery and stabbed him without engaging him in any altercation. Owiti died few minutes later.
-Edited by SKanyara
