Courts
Suspects in Muchai murder were in constant contact, top cop tells court
The analysis proved that the seven accused knew each other well after the data revealed that between the fourth accused person Mustapha Kimani and Jane Wanjiru were in contact 193 times.
A senior investigator has proved before the High Court that the seven accused persons in the murder of former Kabete Member of Parliament George Muchai and three others were in constant communication before and after the offence revealing that they knew to each other.
Testifying before Justice Kanyi Kimondo, Stephen Mwangi, assistant superintendent officer and a communication analyst, produced a communication analysis matrix of the seven accused persons which was extracted from Mobile Service Providers Safaricom and Airtel between February 1 and 10, 2015.
It indicated the number of contacts that was made on the said period of time among the seven accused and the tax driver who was hired to drive them to the scene where the killing took place at Nayo House, along Kenyatta avenue, Nairobi CBD in the wee hours of February 6 and 7.
The analysis proved that the seven accused knew each other well after the data revealed that between the fourth accused person Mustapha Kimani and Jane Wanjiru were in contact 193 times.
“My Lord the data revealed that the fourth accused person Mustapha Kimani had called his co-accused Jane Wanjiru for 150 times while Wanjiru had called him for 43 times,” Mwangi told Justice Kimondo.
The data also revealed that Stephen Astiva contacted Raphael Kimani 77 times and he was contacted by him 33 times.
Further, the data revealed constant communication amongst other accused persons contacting each other severally indicating a maintained relationship between them.
A witness PW 5, Morris Njuguna, who was a taxi driver according to the data, was well known to three of the accused persons,
“My Lord according to the analysis there existed a comfortable fairly relationship between the taxi driver and three of the accused persons since we saw he had been contacted several times by three of the accused persons,” he said.
The officer further explained to the court how the arrest was enhanced by the analysis and made by tracking the mobile signal of Simon Gichamba leading to his arrest and that of his six accomplices.
Mwangi told Justice Kimondo that they analysed the phone belonging to Jane Ngatu who was a robbery victim in the incident and it was tracked since for several hours it was still on before it was switched off and then switched on with another sim card belonging to Gichamba,
“My Lord after robbing Ngatu, Gichamba removed the sim card and inserted his which we followed the signal leading to his arrest,” the officer said.
After his arrest and thorough interrogation by the DCI officers, it led to the arrest of Mustapha and other accused persons.
The seven accused persons, Eric Isabwa alias Chairman, Raphael Kimani Gachii alias Butcher, Mustapha Kimani alias Musto, Stephen Astiva Lipapo alias Chokore, Jane Wanjiru alias Shiro, Margaret Njeri and Simon Gichamba, were arrested and charged with murder contrary to section 203 of the Penal Code.
The charges stated that on the night of February 7, 2015, along Kenyatta avenue in Nairobi murdered former Kabete Member of Parliament George Muchai, his two bodyguards Samuel Kimathi Kailikia and Samuel Lekakeny Matanta, and his driver Stephen Ituu Wambugu.
In the Magistrate’s court, the seven face 10 counts of robbery with violence on the same night they alleged to have killed Muchai.
