On September 19th Joseph Kuria Irungu left Lang’ata to Kilimani area, Nairobi.
While around the Ngei Estate Mr. Irungu received a call that lasted 52 seconds, 12 minutes later, he made a 14-second call while passing near the Uchumi Ngong Hyper on Ngong Road.
Eight minutes later, he was on Dennis Pritt Road, where he once again made a call, lasting 29 seconds.
His movements are being tracked with his mobile phone, and form part of call records that investigators are using to retrace his steps on the night Ms Kimani was killed.
Ms Kimani was murdered on the same night after being tied up. According to a post mortem carried out by the government pathologist her neck severed a carotidal artery and her right jugular vein through the slit on her neck.
However, the call data collected by the detectives does not placed Irungu in Ms Kimani’s house but it is indicated that he was on Dennis Pritt Road between 4.30pm and 10.35pm where Ms Kimani’s Lamuria Gardens flat are located.
Between 9.03pm and 9.21pm he moved around, though not far. A 19-second call he received in the neighbouring Kileleshwa suburb at 9.21 was the last action on Mr Irungu’s phone before he returned to the Dennis Pritt area.
Mr Irungu was yesterday charged alongside 30-year-old journalist Jacqueline Wanjiru Maribe, popularly known as Jacque, for the murder of Ms Kimani. They denied the charges.
At 10.35pm, Mr Irungu received a three-minute call, one of the longest of the day, before he left for Lang’ata.
By 10.52, Mr Irungu was passing the Department of Defence headquarters in Hurlingham as he made another call that lasted 40 seconds. The last physical tag on his call records was at Nairobi Housing Corporation project in Madaraka, where his outgoing dial went unanswered. This was at three minutes past midnight.
He would make over 70 calls between then and 10.01pm on the night of September 20, the day after Ms Kimani’s murder.
On Monday, the High Court was told that several witnesses set to testify in the case against Ms Maribe and Mr Irungu will be placed under a protection programme because of the huge risk the high-profile case places on their security.
For that reason, the prosecution noted, detectives will be opposing the release of the duo on bail or bond until all the witnesses give their evidence in court.
Appearing before Justice Jessie Lesiit yesterday, Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Catherine Mwaniki said they were yet to complete the process of putting the witnesses under protection.
The prosecutor requested to be given another date when they can give their reasons for opposing the suspects’ release on bail. Part of their application read that “there is a high likelihood” that the accused persons “will interfere and intimidate the key prosecution witnesses if released on bail or bond”.
In an affidavit filed in court, the investigating officer said detectives have so far placed Mr Irungu at the scene of crime on September 19, but they are yet to arrest a suspect who was with him in the vehicle after he allegedly committed the crime. The vehicle that was used after the crime, the statement said, was Ms Maribe’s.
Further, the officer said, investigations into the killing will go beyond Kenyan borders. Ms Kimani had just arrived from South Sudan the day she was killed.
Among the witnesses set to testify is a person who is alleged to have seen Mr Irungu burn some clothes on the night Ms Kimani was murdered. The clothes were allegedly burnt at Ms Maribe’s house in Lang’ata and the witness, who was in their company, positively identified the clothes.
The prosecution also alleges that the house in Lang’ata remains a crime scene and the accused persons might interfere with it if released on bond.