A man suspected to have murdered a woman whose body was found mutilated in a dustbin in Nairobi’s Roysambu estate was reportedly intercepted at the Jomo Kenyatta Airport (JKIA) trying to flee to Abuja, Nigeria.
An officer aware of the ongoing interrogation to identify the suspect was revealed.
“It is too early to say if he is the man wanted over the murder or not. We have to wait.” The Officer said.
The man was detained at JKIA before being taken by detectives from Kasarani and DCI headquarters for interrogation.
Investigations reveal that the said suspect used a number registered under a woman’s name to book the room and he made the call from Ruaka.
He was referred to an agent by the apartment owner for him to view the said room.
The dismembered body of the 20 years old Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) was found with limbs and arms were wrapped with plastic sheeting and rolled in a bed sheet.
It also emerged the man had called to book the room using a mobile number registered in a woman’s name. He made the call from Ruaka.
The suspect approached the agent at the apartment entrance saying he had been sent by the landlady to view the room asking for directions and keys for the room.
He was dressed in a cap and dark glasses which the police say it was meant to hide his identity.
According to the police, the murder suspect booked the room at around 3 pm on the said Saturday and the black handbag which he was seen carrying could have been the one carrying the murder weapons.
He claimed that his M-pesa had problems and he paid the money in cash and not M-pesa as he had requested and this was when he was last captured by the CCTV.
He was joined by the victim a 24-year-old University student at 8 pm.
The suspect did not hand over the keys to the management in the morning of Sunday as required and the caretaker reported to the landlady having found body parts inside the dustbin.
According to the Police, the man murdered the victim shortly after they met, dismembered the body and bunched them in plastic sheeting, cleaned the house and took the parts to the dustbin at around 5 am.
The woman was chopped into pieces in the apartment along TRM Drive, Thika Road.
The head of the yet-to-be-identified woman had not been found and Police suspect the killer might have wrapped it with plastic sheeting and handed it over as evidence of his accomplishing the job, to whoever contracted him to carry out the macabre killing.
The police have established the woman traveled to Roysambu, Nairobi, from Athi River.
The deceased had been in contact with her killer and seemed to have been unfamiliar with the venue and needed to be directed to the Airbnb.
The shoes, phone, and clothes of the deceased were carted away by the murder suspect.
Police officers who checked the body for clues at the City Mortuary believe the body was dismembered with a hacksaw by someone with experience in dissecting bodies.
This comes as detectives have stumbled upon details indicating that the slain Roysambu woman and the suspect allegedly met on the social media platform Instagram.
The information that they obtained from the slain woman’s account, was cracked by detectives investigating the January 13.
The investigators say the two avoided using voice calls and other platforms like WhatsApp in their conversation and resorted to the social media platform.
It is not clear how long the two had been in touch.
“It seems they conversed using the platform up to the day of the meeting. He gave her the directions to the apartment through the platform.” an investigator aware of the probe stated.
The suspect had at one point told the woman he wanted to travel out of the country hence the need for the meeting.
Even though the family has identified the body, police have urged them to remain mum and calm and wait for forensic results on her identity.
According to police, part of the conversation between the two shows the man asked the girl to meet him at the TRM bus stop.
He told her he was in white shoes and after she alighted she told him where she was standing and her dress code where they then met and proceeded to their already-booked room.
The Police want to establish if the woman was drugged before she was abused and killed.
This is absolutely heartbreaking. My thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the victim. No one should ever have to suffer such a tragic and senseless loss of life. I hope the police are able to bring the perpetrators to justice as soon as possible.