- Kassaine’s wife Catherine contradicted the three statements including her husband's initial account and told police that Jowie shot himself.
- Njoki said she decided to call Catherine in for questioning after consultations with DCI officers from Kilimani.
Image: ENOS TECHE
Joseph Irungu alias Jowie shot himself inside former TV journalist Jacque Maribe’s house a day after Monica Kimani was murdered.
Chief Inspector Eswari Njoki told court during her testimony that she was the investigating officer and Maribe’s neighbours told police that Jowie had shot himself in Maribe's house using a gun he borrowed.
Njoki told Justice Grace Nzioka that Jowie, Maribe and their neighbour Brian Kassaine had initially told her in their statements that three armed men had attacked Jowie as he came home from picking Maribe from work.
Jowie was the one who made the report on September 21 at Langata police station saying he had been attacked on September 20 outside Royal Park Estate as he was entering.
At the time she was treating Jowie as a complainant and not a suspect but days later she was informed that he had been arrested and even his statement was taken at Muthaiga police station where he was being held.
However, Kassaine’s wife Catherine contradicted the three statements and told police that Jowie shot himself.
Njoki said she decided to call Catherine in for questioning after consultations with DCI officers from Kilimani.
“I went to her house and she agreed to come with me to the station along with her husband (Kassaine) and we went with her in our vehicle,” Njoki said.
The wife narrated that her husband was a licensed firearms holder and that Jowie would borrow it from time to time, and on the night of September 19, 2018, he (Jowie) called Kassaine asking for paraffin but they dismissed him because it was late at night.
The next day she asked her husband why Jowie needed the paraffin but he told her Jowie had dismissed the issue.
Catherine further said that on the night of 20th, they were again woken up by a bang on their gate, her husband went to open and found it was Jowie lying on the ground bleeding.
She said Jowie had been followed by Maribe and she was asking "what did you do? Why did you do?" she was standing next to him shaking.
“The engine of their car was still running and at that point Jowie said Unataka kuniacha pamoja na mtoto wangu nitakufa na mnizike hapa cemetry’"
Catherine told police that Jowie had shot himself using her husband’s gun in Maribe’s bedroom and the other statements about being attacked were made up stories.
Kassaine who was then waiting for his wife to finish recording her statement was taken to a different interview room where he also confirmed that Jowie shot himself using his gun.
He offered to show the police where he hid the gun in a secret room inside his house.
“We went to their house Kassaine led officers to a secret room on the top most floor on his house and a pistol was recovered with rounds of ammunition a spent cartridge and the firearm casing,” Njoki said.
The court was shown pictures of the secret room where Kassaine hid the gun in his house.
The secret room was upstairs with staircase in the closet that led to the room. Njoki said she saw a pistol casing and in it was a ceska pistol and two empty magazines and 34 bullets together with one spent cartridge.
Kassaine also took police outside Maribe’s house and, in a trench, he showed them some burnt items which he suspected Jowie had burnt.
Njoki said the items were partially burnt, adding that they had burnt at the top but the bottom was not.
She told court that after that on October 1 she officially handed over that matter to the homicide team.
-Edited by SKanyara