•The Machakos Court granted the order on Monday, April 4, following a miscellaneous application by police to hold Harrison Muiva to enable them complete investigations in to the murder
•The suspect in the murder of a 35-year-old woman in Machakos is said to have unsuccessfully attempted to commit suicide three times before he was arrested.
Police in Machakos have been allowed to remand a 45-year- old man for seven days in a case he is accused of hacking his girlfriend to death.
The Machakos court granted the order yesterday following a miscellaneous application by police to hold Harrison Muiva, to enable them complete investigations in to the murder.
The order was granted by Resident magistrate Erick Analo.
Muiva will appear before the same magistrate on April 12 to take plea.
The suspect in the murder of the 35-year-old woman is said to have unsuccessfully attempted to commit suicide three times before he was arrested.
According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations detectives attached to Machakos police station, Muiva the prime suspect in the gruesome murder of Faith Mutinda, was arrested in a lodging in Mlolongo town on Friday.
Until her demise, Mutinda was working at Kenya Railways as an assistant audit manager.
Machakos subcounty criminal investigations officer Simon Waithaka said the suspect attempted to commit suicide in a lodging in Emali, Masinga Dam and Mlolongo in Makueni and Machakos counties.
“According to preliminary findings, he abandoned his vehicle at Emali and booked a lodging where he attempted to commit suicide by taking poison," Waithaka told reporters at his office in Machakos on Friday.
"After that, he left for Masinga Dam where he also tried to drown himself.”
Waithaka said the suspect later travelled to Nairobi to visit his sister who turned him away.
“He finally booked a lodging at Mlolongo where for the third time he attempted to commit suicide before police were informed," Waithaka said.
"They took him to Kitengela Level 4 hospital where he was treated and discharged.”
Waithaka said the suspect was later briefly detained at Mlolongo police station where he was picked up by detectives from Machakos.
Muiva is being held at Machakos police station, where he is being interrogated about his girlfriend’s murder.
He is suspected to have killed Mutinda by hacking her to death with a machete on suspicion of infidelity.
It's said that both Muiva and Mutinda were divorced from their previous marriages and were living together.
Muiva had, however, not paid dowry to formalise their union.
Independent sources also revealed that Mutinda had a child from the first marriage.
According to the detectives, on the fateful day, the suspect attacked the girlfriend at night using the machete.
Their four-year-old daughter was sleeping in an adjacent room.
Muiva then fled the murder scene at Kalama in Machakos using the deceased’s vehicle, which he later dumped at Emali.
The car was recovered on March 30.
Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau detectives joined their Machakos counterparts in pursuing the suspect.
He was arrested a week after Mutinda's body was found.
Police arrested him two days after the deceased's car was recovered in Makueni county.
Athi River subcounty criminal investigations officer John Kanda said the suspect was arrested after he unsuccessfully attempted to commit suicide.
Kanda said police recovered sachets of poison inside the room.
Mutinda's body was discovered by the suspect's parents lying on their bed in a pool of blood.
The murder weapon was also recovered by the sleuths.
An autopsy conducted on the body revealed that the woman died because of severe bleeding following multiple deep cut wounds inflicted on her body.
Mutinda will be buried at her parents’ home in Mamba village, Kithimani in Yatta subcounty on April 6.