Police reveal evidence linking Jowie, Maribe as prime suspects in Monica’s murder

The High Court yesterday heard that media personality Jacque Maribe lied to the police on two accounts of how Joseph Irungu alias Jowie was shot a day after businesswoman Monica Kimani was slain.

The investigating officer revealed plenty of evidence linking Maribe and Jowie to Monica’s murder.

Chief Investigating Officer Maxwell Otieno, the penultimate witness in the Monica murder trial, said the first accused Jowie was present at the crime scene in Lamuria Gardens on the night Monica was allegedly murdered.

In two separate statements recorded on consecutive days, Maribe claimed that Jowie was attacked by thugs, despite the fact that she knew he had shot himself with the gun of her neighbour, Brian Kasaine.

Kasaine acknowledged to the investigating officer during interrogation that Maribe told him on the night of the incident that Jowie shot himself.

Kasaine claimed that he had handed his rifle to Jowie in order for him to hone his firearms talents. He also revealed that on the night Jowie shot himself, he and Maribe dashed to his gate and slammed it shut.

When he opened the door, he discovered Jowie bleeding on the ground.

Jowie and Maribe jointly murdered the 29-year-old Juba-based entrepreneur in September 2018, according to the witness, who took the court through materials obtained throughout the investigations and filed them as exhibits.

Officer Otieno stated in his statement that the accused was apprehended leaving the site of the murder at Lamuria Gardens at 2335 hours, based on forensic analysis displayed in call data. This was backed up by Jowie’s statement friend Jennings Orlando.

“Jennings met Jowie at 11:40 pm where the accused met him on foot at a petrol station before boarding the vehicle belonging to the 2nd accused person Jacque Maribe,” submitted the officer.

Jowie was also the last person seen with the deceased before she died, according to eyewitness testimony.

In relation to Jowie’s injuries at Maribe’s house in Royal Park Estate, the two accused persons presented contradictory testimonies to investigative teams, according to the witness.

The two claimed that Jowie was attacked by thugs, but investigators discovered that the injuries were self-inflicted with the help of a neighbour’s rifle.

According to the police, the two were seen together practically immediately after the incident on September 20th till 4 am at Club 40 Forty in Westlands.

Items gathered throughout the investigation were shown and filed as exhibits by the prosecution.

They included a sample taken from the deceased’s body, Jacque Maribe’s car, Lamuria Gardens’ apartment A8, and the Royal Park Estate, where the jointly accused lived.

This year’s hearing has been rescheduled for July 11th.