Kilimani murder: Police seek television journalist Jacque Maribe

Jacque Maribe and Joseph Irungu in a combined picture. PHOTO | COURTESY

What you need to know:

  • Investigators believe that Mr Irungu might have faked a gunshot wound on his left shoulder.
  • Mr Irungu claimed that he was attacked by gunmen on Friday morning after he dropped off Ms Maribe at her residence.
  • The magistrate Wednesday evening ordered Mr Irungu remanded for 10 days to facilitate further investigations.

Detectives were last evening looking for television journalist Jacque Maribe as investigations into the murder of a woman last week in Nairobi's Kilimani neighbourhood gathered steam.

Ms Maribe is the fiancée of Mr Joseph Irungu, the prime suspect in the killing of 28-year-old businesswoman Monica Kimani, who was found dead in her apartment last week. Her throat had been slit and her hands bound together.

ALIBI

Mr Kuria was arraigned in Kiambu on Wednesday and detained for 10 more days at Muthaiga Police Station. In his statement he said he had been with Ms Maribe on the night of Ms Kimani was murdered. Police are looking for the journalist to corroborate the alibi of her boyfriend.

Detectives on Wednesday visited her house in Lang'ata but did not find her. She also did not pick calls and colleagues at work said she was last seen in office on Tuesday.

Investigators believe that Mr Irungu might have faked a gunshot wound on his left shoulder to conceal the truth about the murder. He was arrested on Tuesday morning after preliminary investigations linked him to the murder, but claimed that he was attacked by gunmen on Friday morning after he dropped off Ms Maribe at her residence.

But police are questioning his narrative, saying they suspect the wound may have been occasioned by a struggle with the dead woman. The incident occured on September 1, at Limuru Gardens Apartment in Kilimani, Nairobi.

Lead investigator Maxwell Otieno Wednesday said that at the end of the investigation, it may turn out that the wound was not inflicted by a bullet but by "other weapons”.

“Part of what we want to establish is about (Irungu’s) wound so that it may be known whether it’s a gunshot wound or it’s a wound that may have been inflicted by any other weapon (sic). I am saying that because preliminarily, it is suspected that the same (wound) may turn out not to be a gunshot wound at the end of the investigations,” Mr Otieno told Kiambu Senior Principal Magistrate Stella Atambo.

REMANDED

The magistrate Wednesday evening ordered Mr Irungu remanded for 10 days to facilitate further investigations. The court also ruled that he be taken to hospital.

The suspect, who was arrested in Lang’ata, told the police that after the shooting, he returned to Ms Maribe’s house, and was taken to Nairobi West Hospital.

In his statement, Mr Irungu said he went to Lang'ata Hospital for treatment the same evening, and that he was admitted until Monday morning.

But through his lawyers, Mr Sam Nyaberi, Mr Lawrence Mbaabu and Mr Mugambi Laichena, Mr Irungu said that he had sought treatment at Kijabe Hospital, which is 65 kilometres from Nairobi.

WOUND

The wound was discussed extensively during the court session, since the defence had used it as the main argument to have the hearing of the police application deferred until Mr Irungu was treated, a position that Magistrate Atambo rejected.

Mr Nyaberi told the court that since his arrest, the suspect was yet to get any form of treatment or medication despite being in great pain.

According to Mr Nyaberi, doctors have already cautioned that if he does not get specialised treatment urgently, he risks having his arm amputated.

Ms Nyawira was murdered and her body placed inside a bathtub with her hands tied together, her mouth sealed with adhesive tape and her throat slit. Detectives said their leads so far have only linked Mr Irungu to the murder.

CRIME SCENE

Mr Otieno said preliminary investigations had established that the suspect was in the vicinity of the scene of crime, a line which they are pursuing as well as analysing data from a mobile service provider to establish his movements during the time of the incident.

The deceased's car and mobile phone have been confiscated with a view to conducting further forensic analysis in connection with the murder. A preliminary investigation indicated that both the car and the deceased's phone were at the scene of the incident.

Several witnesses have positively identified Mr Irungu as having been at the woman's house on the night of the murder through an identification parade conducted at Kilimani Police Station on September 25. The investigation is expected to be extended to South Sudan were Ms Nyawira is said to have returned from on the fateful day.

WITNESSES

Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Jacinta Nyamosi said that detectives would interview and record statements of witnesses believed to have crucial information regarding the Ms Nyawira's activities in South Sudan.

Police were apprehensive that, should the suspect be released “there is a high likelihood that he will interfere with the investigations’’, having been identified to have been in the victim’s house on the fateful night.

The investigating team also intends to interview and record statements from several witnesses, some of whom are friends and immediate neighbours of the suspect.

Preliminary investigations have also established that Mr Irungu frequently visits the Middle East, where he has worked for private security company, and police believe that he might be a flight risk should he be released before investigations are completed.

Speaking at their home in Landless Estate, Thika, Ms Kimani’s family said that the two began communicating on social media before they finally met recently at Westlands, Nairobi.

AFFAIR

Ms Kimani’s brother, Mr George Thiru Kimani, revealed that his sister had informed him that the man was interested in having an affair with her, but she was reluctant as she did not know him well and also because she was in another relationship.

“The two were mutual friends and mostly communicated on Facebook and through Instagram. There was nothing intimate; Irungu admired my sister but she did not take him seriously as she had a boyfriend,” said Mr Kimani.

He also revealed that he and Mr Irungu were students at Kenya Polytechnic University, where they shared a class but since they graduated they only met once again recently.

"From social media, I could tell he went to work in Dubai as I worked in South Sudan," added Mr Kimani.

He said he learnt of Mr Irungu’s possible link to the murder when someone called to inform him that he had been arrested.

Mr Kimani said he went to sister's house and found body lying in the bath tub. Her undergarments had also been partly torn an indication that she might have been raped before she was murdered.

The deceased’s father, Bishop Paul Ngarama, of the Rebuilding Apostolic Mission Church, described his daughter as a “morally upright and hard-working child who bore no grudge with anyone”.

He said he was hopeful that justice would be done.