Three more suspects among them a woman were early Friday arraigned before a Murang’a court over the gruesome murder of prison warden Pauline Wanjiru.
The three Joseph Otieno Ochieng, Rogers Namukolo and Mary Amollo will be detained for 14 days to allow police conclude investigations with their case set to be mentioned on the 31st of May.
The court however released Peterson Njiru, the alleged boyfriend to the deceased, with an order to appear before the directorate of criminal investigation offices in Murang’a town when required.
Joseph Otieno Ochieng, Rogers Namukolo and Mary Amollo appeared before Resident Magistrate Sheila Nyaga facing murder charges over the killing Wangari, a prison warden at the Murang’a GK Prisons.
Phoebe Okomo who is the investigating officer in the case sought to have the court grant the prosecution more time to conclude investigations.
Okomo told the court that the three were arrested on their way to Kisumu on Thursday and could be a flight risk if released on bond or cash bail.
The prosecution requested that detectives be allowed to search residential houses of the suspects, as some belongings of the deceased went missing immediately after her murder.
The suspects did not object to the application with the court granting the investigation team a further two weeks to detain them at the Murang’a Police station.
The court also issued a search warrant with the case scheduled to be mentioned on May 31.
JOSEPH OCHIENG, key suspect in murder of prison warder Pauline Wangari, stabs himself in attempted suicide as police search his home, police say. pic.twitter.com/JZ4s85DATv
— NationBreakingNews (@NationBreaking) May 17, 2019
She was found without clothes and her entire bedding soaked in blood. A roll of bhang was also placed between her lips, and a kitchen knife clutched in her right hand.
A middle-aged man with a tattoo on his neck was captured on CCTV footage entering her house at 9 pm on Monday and leaving on Tuesday at 3 am.
The footage further shows the man leaving the house while carrying a TV set, a large bag and a mobile phone belonging to the deceased.
According to the suspect, he had an argument with Wangari after she refused to take some hard drugs which he had given her, the Murang’a DCI said to reporters in confidence.
The two reportedly spent a significant part of Monday evening indoors smoking bhang, the suspect told the DCI.
“As per the suspect’s testimony, he strangled the woman after she refused to take the drugs he was recommending to her. He said the woman, thereafter, fell down with a thud, and he thought he had killed her. Sent into a panic mode following the development, the suspect said he reached for a kitchen knife and stabbed her in the chest, neck and abdomen, and, thereafter, put the knife firmly in her grip in a bid to make it look like Wangari had killed herself,” said the DCI officer.
In his testimony, the suspect further claimed prior to the quarrel, he and Pauline Wangari got intimate. A medical examination on Wangari is yet to authenticate the suspect’s claims.
The killing happened at Wangari’s rented house in Kiharu, Murang’a County.
“He described his relationship with the suspect as ‘just a friendship’,” said the DCI officer handling the case.