A brother of murdered businesswoman Monica Kimani on Wenesday relived the grim scene that greeted him when he discovered his sister’s body in a bloodied bathtub.
George Kimani said Joseph Irungu, alias Jowie, who has been charged alongside his ex-fiancée Jacque Maribe with the killing, said he had a security firm that would help in investigations.
George had a hard time testifying as the prosecution took him through pictures of Monica’s body. At some point, lead prosecutor Wangui Gichui felt the photos had resulted in overwhelming emotion.
“I apologise for that,” Gichui told George.
George stamped his left foot, his hands held akimbo. At times he fidgeted in an apparent move to get a temporary distraction. Then he went on. “When I discovered Monica’s body at her Lamuria Gardens Apartment in Kilimani, Off Dennis Pritt Road, her hands were bound and blood was oozing from her mouth and nose,” he said.
He explained that when he and his girlfriend arrived in Monica’s house on September 20 last year at around noon, the door had been locked but they could hear the sound of running water from the kitchen. They knocked several times but no one answered. All the while, they could also hear her Television was on.
They sought a caretaker’s help to find out whether Monica was in. Her BMW car was at the parking bay. “I asked the guards and they said they didn’t have a spare key. We went back, knocked again, no response,” George said.
A gardener then accessed the house through the balcony window, which was open. He found Monica dead and was utterly shocked. In the midst of that confusion, the gardener couldn’t do anything. Hence, a caretaker stepped in and used a hammer to break the doorknob. It was then that George went in and found Monica in the bathtub lying sideways — her dress halfway pulled and her pantie torn.
“On her head was a hand shower that was on, her hands were tied with white straps, and another white strap was used to tie her leg,” he told the court.