• Justice Ogembo has directed that Waithera be taken for mental assessment and she will be charged on March 4.
• She will be remanded at Langata Women Prison pending mental assessment.
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A woman who is alleged to have killed her Belgian friend whose body is yet to be found has been arraigned in court.
Lucy Waithera was on Thursday brought before Justice Daniel Ogembo but did not plead to murder charges as the prosecution is seeking time to conduct a mental assessment.
Justice Ogembo has directed that Waithera be taken for mental assessment and she will be charged on March 4.
She will be remanded at Langata Women Prison pending mental assessment.
The judge directed that she be escorted for the exam as soon as possible.
Dysseleer Mireille disappeared last year in January and it is alleged that Waithera forged a will and her death certificate claiming she died at MP Shah but the hospital said no one by that name was at the hospital.
According to police sources, Waithera befriended Mireille when she moved to Nakuru in 2018 and a few months later she disappeared and Waithera had a death certificate that said she died of HIV and AIDS.
She told police that her friend was cremated but police have established that it never happened. Waithera has already sold her Friend's house and a Prado vehicle to a pastor in Nakuru.
Waithera Njuguna has been in custody since February 3 when she was arrested in connection with the disappearance of Mirielle Lesoipa alias Leila wa Samburu.
The woman lived in Nakuru before her disappearance early last year from her residence in Blankets estate, Mwariki, Nakuru East.
Detective Oliver Nabowe who is investigating the matter said in an affidavit presented to Kiambu chief magistrate Patricia Gichohi one week ago that immediately after Mireille's disappearance, Waithera and her accomplices who are still at large leased the missing person's residence to Avipro East Africa and started earning rent.
Waithera is said to have furnished the missing person's advocates, Hari Gakinya and Company Advocates, with death certificate No. 1600281 showing Mireille died on July 15, 2019 at MP Shah Hospital, Nairobi.
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The certificate was used to file succession cause No.40/2019 at Nakuru High Court in respect of the missing person’s estate and Waithera was named as a beneficiary.
The death certificate has since been found to be fake by civil registration services. MP Shah through its a medical director has attested that the missing person was neither treated nor passed on at their facility.
Waithera is said to have been arrested on February 1 in her Milimani residence in Nakuru where the missing person's assorted bank cards and a copy of the death certificate were recovered.
She was also found in possession of Mireille's passport with immigration stamps indicating that Mireille travelled to India on December 12, 2018, and came back to Kenya on June 30 last year.
Investigators also seized a passport belonging to Waithera showing that she too travelled to India on May 12, 2019, and came back on May 18, 2019.
Waithera had alleged that she had visited Mireille at Janaupuri Bhagat Hospital where the missing person had been admitted since December 2018.
Preliminary investigations from the Immigration Department have so far established that neither Mireille nor Waithera travelled to India from Kenya as alleged.
The detective further said that since investigations started Waithera had been changing her assertions day by day, at one time alleging that the missing person died in hospital in India and was cremated at Kariokor crematorium.
But there is no record of Mireille leaving the country and no records of being cremated at Kariokor or Langata crematorium.
Lawyer Cliff Ombeta representing the suspect told the court there was no material evidence supporting the investigating team's claims.