Joseph Kori released, goes mall shopping

Mr Joseph Kori, who has been in police custody for the last three weeks over the murder of his wife Mary Wambui, was on Thursday night released from Gigiri Police Station, Nairobi.

His journey to freedom started on Thursday evening when homicide detectives, attached to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), walked into the station and asked to have a conversation with him. They later freed him at exactly 9:05pm.

PROBE

A police source at Gigiri station, who spoke in confidence, confirmed Mr Kori’s release. “He was interrogated by officers for some time outside the cell before he was released. The officers then returned to the station and signed that they had set the suspect free,” said the source.

His release comes exactly a week after investigators found difficulties in pinning the murder on Mr Kori. However, Ms Judy Wangui, believed to be Mr Kori’s mistress and also the main suspect in the murder, is still locked up at Muthaiga Police Station.

On Friday, a source spotted Kori shopping at Two Rivers Mall. "He was wearing red shorts, a T-shirt and a Safari hat. He was in the company of a woman," said the source.

Mr Kori’s family did not want to comment on his release when contacted. When the Saturday Nation contacted his father Mr John Maina, he said he was away and was not aware of any progress on the matter.

“I don’t have any information about the matter,” said Mr Maina.

Ms Esther Kamangara, Ms Wambui’s sister, who has in the past been so open to the media said she has been instructed not to speak at all about the matter.

“I have been told not to speak to the media about anything to do with Kori. His family does not want anything to do with the media,” she said.

BURIAL

However, in past interviews, the family of Ms Kamangara said there was no bad blood between Mr Kori and them.

She had further revealed that the family had agreed to bury Ms Wambui at Mr Kori’s rural home in Mweiga, Nyeri County, which is in accordance with the Kikuyu traditions where a married woman should be buried in her husband’s place of choice.

Ms Kamangara had also said that burial preparations had been put on hold until Mr Kori was free.

His release comes just a week after officers revealed that the strands of what they thought would have seen Mr Kori treated as a suspect began to disappear when it emerged that he was not at Ms Wangui’s apartment that is located at Fourways Junction in Kiambu County.

The leads that the officers were following with the aim of pinning him down could finally wither and break away when a taxi driver, Mr Michael Mathenge, was arrested in relation to the murder.

STATE WITNESS

Mr Mathenge might also find himself lucky if the investigating team decides to turn him into a State witness in the case.

However, this will be achievable just in case the investigating team determines that Ms Wambui’s death was not planned.

“If it emerges that it was planned then Mr Mathenge is an automatic accomplice and he will have a case to answer because he was hired to ferry Ms Wambui’s body to a dam in Juja where it was dumped,” said our source.

In his statement, Mr Mathenge said that he was forced to ferry the body by Ms Wangui who threatened him that she would scream if he did not collaborate.

He said that they were the two of them when the murder took place. His sentiments could later corroborate with Mr Kori’s who said that he was neither at the scene of crime nor even aware about Ms Wambui’s whereabouts on the night she met her death.