• First attempt to take a mental exam failed after 'doctor refused to write a report before interviewing suspect's family'.
• His case is expected to be consolidated with that of slain woman's estranged husband who is the prime suspect.
The second suspect in the murder of a woman and her two children in Nanyuki will be detained at Kerugoya GK Prison for 10 days.
Nyeri High Court's Justice Jairus Ngaah gave the order on Monday while ruling that Collins Pamba appears again on December 19.
The judge also directed that Pamba is taken at Nyeri County Referral Hospital for medical examination before taking a plea.
Pamba is the second suspect in the murder of Joyce Syombua and her 10-year-old daughter Shanice Maua and son Prince Michael, 5, in October.
They were found buried at Kilimo Indians’ cemetery in Thingithu area.
Pamba was a casual worker at Laikipia airbase.
Assistant DPP Peter Mailanyi had requested the court to defer plea taking to allow Pamba to undergo a mental examination.
Mailanyi said an attempt to have Pamba undergo the test at Nanyuki Referral Hospital last week on Thursday flopped after a doctor declined to sign the medical report.
The assistant prosecutor said the doctor said she wanted to first interrogate the relatives of the accused before she could issue her report.
This, Mailanyi claimed, was prejudicial of the doctor and aimed at aiding the suspect.
Mailanyi told the court that they were unable to produce the accused person before the court earlier as he was assisting the police with investigations.
He said Pamba is also not represented and since he is facing a capital offence, he should be assigned a lawyer by the court.
He requested that the accused be detained at Kerugoya Prison since "if the two accused are in the same prison, one is likely to interfere with the other".
“I have also been advised by the DCI that this matter is being handled by the homicide department at the DCI Mazingira and it will be convenient for them to pick the accused person from there and then the other accused person at King’ong’o GK Prison,” he said.
Pamba’s case is expected to be consolidated with that of Major Peter Mugure, a Kenya Defence Force soldier and the husband of Syombua who is the prime suspect in the murder of the three.
Syombua and her children went missing on October 26.
Her estranged husband Mugure on November 16 led police to three bodies buried in a shallow grave at a cemetery in Nanyuki.
On Friday last week, the same court deferred the soldier’s plea-taking to December 17, following an application by the prosecution to detain him for 12 more days at King'ong'o maximum prison.
The court granted the state 12 days to detain Mugure so that he could be taken for mental examination at Nyeri Referral Hospital.
Edited by R.Wamochie