Man accused of killing girlfriend detained for 14 days pending probe

A Thika court has today ruled that Evans Karani, man accused of killing his girlfriend Catherine Nyokabi at Witeithie in Juja to remain in police custody for 14 days pending probe.

Today morning, the defendant appeared before Thika Law Courts Magistrate Oscar Wanyaga virtually from the Juja Police Station.

Karani aged 39 years asked the magistrate to speed up his sentence.

The suspect was arrested over the weekend after the body of his 25-year-old girlfriend was discovered 50 meters from his car in the Ndarugu area of Juja, Kiambu County.

Detectives believe his car got stuck in the mud when he dumped the body, forcing him to abandon it at the scene.

He was later arrested at Githurai Kimbo.

The 38-year-old businessman based in Juja, allegedly confessed that he murdered his estranged girlfriend on Wednesday last week and dumped her body near a forest hoping it would be eaten by wild animals.

The suspect had dated Nyokabi, a mother of one, for nearly four years but their relationship was caught up with claims of infidelity with Karani accusing Nyokabi of having an affair with another man.

He apparently said that his love for Nyokabi could not allow her to see someone else.

In a virtually heard miscellaneous application by the investigating officers, senior resident magistrate Oscar Wanyaga ordered that the main suspect be re-arraigned on May 3, 2021.

The case investigating Officer Jairus Mbondo told the court that investigators are yet to conduct a postmortem on the body of the slain woman and are yet to take the suspect for mental assessment.

Further, Mbondo told the court that police intend to record statements from crucial witnesses and are yet to compile the police file and forward it to the director of public prosecutions for perusal and advice.

He said that releasing the respondent at the current stage may interfere with their investigations alongside interfering with witnesses.

Karani, a sand seller was arrested at Githurai Kimbo area on Friday last week in connection to the murder which occurred at Ndarugu area of Witeithie in Juja, Kiambu County.

Preliminary investigations have established that Karani was the boyfriend of the deceased, a mother of one child and were on board the suspect’s vehicle which is believed to have been used in ferrying Nyokabi from Kahawa Wendani to Ndarugo where the murder occurred.

Nyokabi’s mutilated body was discovered in unoccupied land by good Samaritans who reported the matter to police who visited the scene and collected it.

Police say that the slain woman’s body had multiple injuries and that the main suspect’s body had been left at the murder scene stuck in the mud

The suspect is believed to have doused her girlfriend’s body with some unknown chemical after killing her.

After his arrest, the suspect told police that his girlfriend who is a hotelier in Kahawa Wendani was his secret lover and had for the last two weeks had irreconcilable differences.

During today’s virtual court session, drama was witnessed as the suspect pleaded with the magistrate to make his immediate ruling even before he is formally charged.

He told the detectives that early last week before the murdered happened, he had unsuccessfully tried to convince Nyokabi to delete a photo of the alleged new lover from her phone because it was hurting him.

Karani allegedly said Nyokabi refused to do so, and this is when he started hatching a plan to kill her.

He said his first intention was to kill the alleged lover but he later changed his mind. Karani is married to another woman.

The case will come up for mentioning on May 3.