• Koki ran Koki & Associates Advocates and was also a HR consultant. She was found dead in her four-bedroom house in Syokimau on January 8.
• Lawyer Kamende urged investigative authorities to ensure that no stone was left unturned during their investigations.
Image: GEORGE OWITI
The suspect in city lawyer Elizabeth Koki’s murder will undergo mental assessment before he takes a plea.
This is after a Machakos court ordered that Christian Kadima be subjected to the assessment and be remanded at the Machakos G.K Prison before being produced in court for the third time on February 3.
Machakos High Court deputy registrar Erick Analo directed that the accused be taken for a Covid-19 test and a medical certificate on his status be produced before he is remanded.
Analo also ordered that the suspect be provided with a pro-bono lawyer for the case to proceed since he wasn't represented by any advocate.
The suspected appeared before the magistrate after his case was moved from Mavoko Law Courts to the High Court on Monday.
Law Society of Kenya vice president Caroline Kamende appeared in court as the lead counsel. She was accompanied by several advocates representing the LSK, FIDA Kenya and the bereaved family.
Kamende said they were pursuing justice for Koki.
Koki ran Koki & Associates Advocates and was also a HR consultant. She was found dead in her four-bedroom house in Syokimau on January 8.
Kamende urged investigative authorities to ensure that no stone was left unturned during their investigations.
Koki was buried at her ex-husband's home in Miti Mingi area in Nakuru County on January 22.
Kadima was first arraigned at the Mavoko Law Courts on January 10 but didn't take plea since the prosecution requested for 14 days to conclude investigations.
The suspect was arrested on January 8 in a lodging within Nairobi.
The Mavoko court heard that the suspect’s real identity had not been established yet. The prosecution said Kadima had a Safaricom line 0742640835 registered using a South African passport fpfn476441763 under the name Zuchiswa Genevieve.
It further said the suspect’s purported Kenyan temporary passport number 870018 was registered under the name of Eric Kambugi Katalai Kadima. The suspect allegedly fled to Kenya from South Africa in 2017. He is allegedly a wanted man in South Africa.
Investigators revealed that police in South Africa were pursuing a man called Euloge Christian Kadima and suspected it to be him. The man escaped after allegedly assaulting a woman, skipped bail and fled to Kenya. A warrant of arrest was subsequently issued against him.
The prosecution made the application under a miscellaneous application number 84421, with officer Anthony Matuto as the applicant verses Christian Baledi Kadima alias Eric Kambaye Katalayi as the respondent.
“That this honourable court may be pleased to issue an order for the respondent to be detained at Mlolongo police station for a period of 14 days to enable the applicant to complete investigations,” the application read.
The suspect did not oppose the application.
Koki's car, Vokswagen KCQ 999 K that the suspect allegedly used to escape from the scene, was recovered at Marsabit House along Ngong Road. He had given it out to someone else to return to her family, according to detectives.
Koki's body had signs of strangulation, with injuries that might have led to her death. Her bed was also blood-stained. The body was reportedly discovered by her house help inside her bedroom on a Friday morning.
It is said that the suspect on Thursday night drove to the apartment at around 8pm and went straight into Koki’s bedroom. The bedroom has since been secured by police as a crime scene. DCI officers from the Homicide Department dusted the scene.
An empty packet of a pain killer tablet 'Mara Moja' was on the bedside cabinet when the detectives visited. A wrist watch was also recovered from the scene of crime by the detectives.