Detectives for third day quiz Recce officer over Monica murder

Detectives, for the third day in a row, quizzed Recce Squad officer Jennings Orlando Saturday over the events of September 19 night when Ms Monica Kimani was murdered at her house in Kilimani, Nairobi.

Sources privy to the investigations said the detectives picked up Mr Orlando, a police constable, from the Gigiri Police Station Saturday morning and drove him to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) on Kiambu Road.

Mr Orlando, who was arrested on Thursday evening at a house in Embakasi, Nairobi, according to the sources, was questioned at length about his movements on the night when Ms Kimani was murdered.

“We wanted him to account for his movements on that night; we know he holds a lot of information central to this investigation,” said one of the sources in the investigations team.

According to the detectives, a police identification parade conducted at the DCI headquarters on Friday positively identified Mr Orlando as one of the persons who was spotted at an entertainment spot on Dennis Pritt Road, only 200 metres from where Ms Kimani was murdered.

The sources said Mr Orlando was spotted at the entertainment spot, a high-end joint owned by a prominent politician and frequented by politicians and media celebrities, in the early evening – around 9pm – but left to an unknown place, only to resurface after midnight.

“He is obviously a person of great interest in this case,” the source added.

The detectives had conducted a search at Mr Orlando’s quarters at the Recce Squad headquarters based at the Ruiru GSU camp on Friday evening but found nothing useful to the investigations.

 CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION

The Sunday Nation learnt that police were in particular looking for the murder weapon, believed to be a sharp knife, which is yet to be recovered a month after the heinous crime was committed.

Mr Orlando was first detained at Muthaiga Police Station on Thursday night but on Friday, the detectives transferred him to Gigiri Police Station which is regarded as one of the “safest” stations in Nairobi.

Unlike many police stations which have single cells each for male and female inmates, Gigiri has four, enabling detectives to isolate prized inmates from the other inmates.

Television journalist Jacque Maribe, who has also been charged with Ms Kimani’s murder alongside her fiancé Joseph Irungu alias “Jowie”, was, for instance, kept in solitary confinement at the same police station before being transferred to the Lang’ata Women’s Prison once she took a plea in the murder case.

On Saturday, Gigiri police boss Richard Mugwai declined to confirm whether Mr Orlando was being held at the station or not.

“That is confidential information I cannot divulge,” he told our reporter.

Mr Orlando, 31, was on Friday quietly arraigned in a Kiambu court.

He did not take a plea as the prosecution applied to detain him for 14 days to allow for more investigations.

Resident Magistrate Justus Kituku allowed police to detain him to allow for more investigations. He also directed the prosecution to present Orlando in court on November 2.

Detectives investigating the murder believe he is the man who accompanied Jowie on the night Ms Kimani was killed.

Monica’s throat was slit and her body dumped in a bathtub. Her killers left the water running. Her body was found when her brother went to check on her.

The Sunday Nation learnt that there was an express directive that his court file was not to be leaked to the media because he was being treated as a “prospective State witness.”