Murder suspect Lawrence Warunge pleads not guilty
Lawrence Warunge, a university student who admitted to killing five family members in January, has been charged with five counts of murder.
Appearing in a virtual court session before Lady justice Mary Kasango, Warunge was charged with killing his father Nicholas Warunge, mother Anne Warunge, brother Christian Njenga, nephew Maxwell Njenga and construction worker James Kinyanjui on the night of January 5-6, 2021.
He denied all the charges.
The court directed that the suspect be remanded at Nairobi Industrial Area Prison pending the pre-trial hearing scheduled for May 11, 2021.
Warunge’s girlfriend Sarah Muthoni, who was previously presented before court as the second accused, is expected to be a State witness in the case.
Warunge was yesterday declared fit to stand before trial.
This followed a psychiatric report released by Mathari Mental Hospital, confirming that the 22-year-old can now answer to his crimes.
He had been declared ‘unfit’ by the same court in late January, with his plea-taking halted following a mental assessment at the same hospital.
Warunge is accused of murdering his parents, 12-year-old brother, cousin and a farmhand in cold blood.
He told police that his parents were “satanic and killers” hence deserved to die.
In a damning police report, he told detectives that he researched the best way to commit the crime online.
He admitted to inadvertently getting ‘tips’ from a psychopathic killer in the British show Killing Eve.
According to the police report, he first murdered James Kinyanjui, a handyman who lived just a few meters away from the main house.
He then attacked his father, Nicholas Warunge, who had fled the visceral attack by jumping from the balcony.
His cousin who was hiding under the bed, was the last to be killed.
Warunge told police officers that despite the child kneeling and pleading for mercy, he stabbed the minor with a 9-inch knife.
Warunge hit his victims on the head with a metal bar, stabbed them multiple times in the chest, and slit their throats to ensure that none of them survived.
He went on to state that he had initially planned to kill everyone including his two surviving sisters who are in school, but his plans were foiled when the two returned to school on January 5, the day he allegedly committed the murders.
The 22-year-old suspect has been in police custody since he was arrested in January.
