PROBE INTENSIFIES

Amin visits Jeff Mwathi death scene ahead of planned exhumation

Says he visited the scene to understand what happened.

In Summary

• Amin was accompanied by detectives from the homicide unit and wanted to reconstruct the scene for further investigation.

• This comes after detectives said they believe Jeff was murdered before his body was thrown out.

DCI Amin Mohamed at the scene
DCI Amin Mohamed at the scene
DCI Amin Mohamed at the scene
DCI Amin Mohamed at the scene

Director of Criminal Investigations Mohamed Amin on Tuesday visited the scene where interior designer Geoffrey Jeff Mwathi died in Roysambu as part of the probe into the incident.

Amin was accompanied by detectives from the homicide unit and wanted to reconstruct the scene for further investigation.

He said he visited the scene to understand what happened.

“There are many questions that are emerging after we visited and reconstructed the scene. We are moving to another level now,” he said.

The move came days after Inspector General of police Japhet Koome said detectives plan to exhume Jeff's body as part of the probe into his death.

Koome said they had found gaps in the incident, hence the need to exhume the body.

He said police are doing thorough investigations to ensure justice in the case.

“We will have that body exhumed, look at dimensions on where he is said to have passed at the window to drop to the ground floor. We are moving to court to seek an order for the exhumation,” Koome said at his office in Nairobi.

“Anyone found culpable will be held accountable,” he said.

This comes after detectives said they believe Jeff was murdered before his body was thrown out.

Homicide detectives handling the case said the 23-year-old interior designer was murdered and did not jump to his death, as earlier reported.

It was initially reported he died by suicide in the February 22 incident.

After the team visited the scene for reconstruction and forensic analysis, they said they found signs of a struggle inside Mugithi musician Lawrence Njuguna alias DJ Fatxo’s house.

Some music equipment was broken in the house out of the struggle, the officers said.

Detectives pointed out that there was a possibility of a fight before Jeff was dragged outside and thrown off from the rooftop or from the stairs of the 12-storey apartment.

The investigators, in ruling out suicide, believe that Jeff was murdered before he was thrown off to cover up and make it look like suicide.

Initially, it was recorded that Jeff jumped out of the window of the bedroom, but that was ruled out as it is impossible for an adult to fit into the tight frames of the window.

Homicide detectives said the process included interviewing the first cluster of witnesses in the case, forensic examination of the scene and retrieval of CCTV footage that captured the deceased's last moments.

Detectives said they are now progressing to the second phase of the investigation, where several persons of interest will be interrogated and appropriate recommendations made to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP).

The sleuths said the persons of interest to be interrogated in the next phase will include all the five persons who were at DJ Fatxo’s house when the incident happened.

Also to be questioned, according to DCI, are police officers who handled the case first.

The DCI homicide detectives took over the case from Kasarani police station last week following orders from Interior CS Kithure Kindiki.

Fatxo, who termed Jeff as his good friend, has since denied involvement in his death and said he will cooperate with investigators.

He told the media on March 12 that he was the one who reported to the police about Jeff's disappearance on the morning he died.

This was after he left in the company of three ladies but returned hours later but did not find Jeff in the house.

"I'm so willing to cooperate with the detectives, DCI, until we all know what happened to Jeff," he said.

"For Kenyans and my fans, keep praying for me, this is hard but we will emerge victorious," he added.

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