Citizen TV news anchor Jacque Maribe is currently the talk of town, and not because of her beautiful face or mellow voice. It is because she decided to be the news instead of reporting the news.
Maribe and her boyfriend Joseph ‘Jowi’ Irungu are being held as prime suspects in the murder of Monica Kimani. The 29 year old woman was found dead in her apartment along Denis Pritt Road in Kilimani two weeks ago. Her throat had been slit and dumped in a bathtub.
A Kiambu court yesterday allowed police to detain the journalist and her neighbour Brian Kasaine for 11 days as they complete their investigations.
According to Assistant Director of Prosecutions Jacinta Nyamosi, Maribe could have committed three serious charges, which if found guilty could see her face a very long time in jail.
Ms Maribe could face murder, accessory to murder and possession of ammunition without a firearm charges related to the killing of Monica Nyawira Kimani.
Last week, detectives found a nine millimetre live bullet in her bedroom.
According to court records, she had told the police that her fiancé, Joseph Kuria Irungu alias Jowie, attempted to commit suicide by shooting himself in the chest following a serious disagreement between them.
Maribe indicates after shooting himself, Mr Irungu rushed out to the neighbour’s house, woke him up and urged him to go and get the gun that was still in the journalist’s house.
According to the police affidavit, Maribe said she and other persons rushed Irungu to hospital.
The investigating officer however indicated that in an earlier statement she had recorded at Lang’ata Police Station, Maribe had alleged that Irungu had been shot by a three-man gang on a motorbike near the gate of her house.
The detective said preliminary investigations had so far established Irungu was seen in the company of another person near the crime scene while driving the journalist’s car.
It is not clear whether Mr Irungu wanted to commit suicide or lay a false trail when he turned the gun on himself, but detectives suspect a strong link between Ms Kimani’s macabre killing and the gunshot wound on Mr Irungu’s chest, both hours apart.
Detectives have placed Ms Maribe, who was arrested on Saturday night, at the centre of an attempt to cover-up the murder of Ms Kimani.
According to them, their investigations have not only established that she and Mr Irungu were together on the day of the murder, but also that some of the key exhibits in the incident were found in her house.
The items, according to chief lead investigator in the murder Maxwell Otieno, include a robe and a jacket worn by Mr Irungu on the day Ms Kimani was slaughtered inside her apartment shortly after arriving into the country from Juba, South Sudan, and which were partly burnt at Ms Maribe’s residence.
Police believe Ms Maribe knew about the attempt to conceal evidence by burning the garments. It is not clear yet whether she was in the house when the incineration occurred.