Kasarani Murder Trial: Witness Questions Lack of Evidence in Grandson’s Killing

The High Court in Nairobi has heard the ordeal and events that happened in the dead of the night in a bid to reveal what transpired  leading to the grisly murder of an 18-year-old Maxwell Wamwea over allegations of burglary without production of stolen items.

Standing in the dock, Alice Wanjiru Wamwea, the grandmother of the deceased, told Justice Alexander Muteti what transpired on the fateful night when Wamwea was murdered at Thome area, Roysambu, within Nairobi county under unclear circumstances.

The ordeal began on the night of May 10, 2022,  when she heard a knock at the door. Wondering who could have visited her at that hour of the night, a voice notified her that it was the watchman of her residential plot in Huruma estate within Nairobi county, where she lives.

“It was around 1:00 am in the morning when I heard a knock at the door. It was my watchman who informed me that my driver, Gibson Maina aka Kaido, wanted to talk to me since he could not reach me on the phone,” Wanjiru told the court.

When she met Kaido, he requested her to join him to go to Thome in her garden, where she was rearing chickens, since he got a report from one of the gardeners that there were four rowdy people in the said property armed with batons and were giving threats to carry goose and chickens.

Kaido proceeded to the garden, and he indeed confirmed that there were three men and a woman in the garden patrolling inside. A few minutes later, the lady called the police officers, who came in uniform, including the OCS from the Kasarani Police station. station.

Kaido went back to Huruma at dawn and picked Wanjiru up from the garden, then they proceeded to Kasarani Police Station, where Maxwell was allegedly locked, but he was told to go to Kiambu Hospital to look for him.

In the office, she was directed by the officer at the reception, and she met the two accused persons, who are a couple. When the man saw Wanjiru at the door, he shouted, “Shosh has arrived. The wife raised her voice, “Your grandchild is a thief, and I caught him stealing from my house.”

He told the court that it was her first time seeing the couple, though she came to learn later that they stayed in the same apartment where the deceased was raised by the aunt under her (Wanjiru) support since his mother was deceased.

Accompanied by her driver, they proceeded to Kiambu Hospital. At the reception, Wanjiru was advised to go to the morgue and identify the body of her grandson from the unknown bodies.

“I identified the body of my grandson, he had severe injuries on his head and a black strangle mark around his neck, indicating that he was strangled using either a rope or a cable,” she told the court.

In their records of the received bodies, they indicated that police brought the body of the deceased and registered it as unknown, claiming they found it on the road.

They went back to Kasarani Police Station, where the OCS informed her that the deceased was attacked by mob justice while stealing in a neighbourhood apartment, but the information hit her with doubt and pain since she had never shown the items that were stolen by her grandson to date.

The court heard that they went to the Horohio Apartment, where Wamwea was allegedly stealing, and met the caretaker.

The caretaker, who was identified as Gitau, showed her the house which Wamwea was alleged to have stolen. The house was on the second floor, and the allegations were that he climbed from the side using the sewer pipes, information she fully doubted.

“I doubted the narrative because the couple, now the accused persons’ house, was on the far end opposite to the house I was shown. I questioned how they went to record their statements with the police as complainants, hence the alleged burglarised house was not theirs,” she said.

Further, the caretaker took her to the scene where the deceased was murdered – at the roadside near the said Horohio apartment; the soil was drenched with blood, and there was a black cable which she alleged could be the one used to strangle the deceased.

In cross-examination by the defence counsel Wadungi Kirathe, Wanjiru denied the information that the OCS told her that they recovered stolen items that he was found with.

Did the OCS disclose to you that your grandchild was arrested with stolen items? “No, I heard it now from you. I have not shown any items that are alleged to be stolen from the accused persons,” Wanjiru responded.

She also indicated that police were hiding something from her because on the fateful night when the deceased was killed, police raided her farm in Thome, but when they took the body to Kiambu Hospital mortuary, they indicated that they had found it by the roadside and tagged it as unknown.

According to her, Wamwea was well known by the accused persons since he was brought up in Horohio Apartment, where the couple lives, and they went to record statements at Kasarani Police Station. She alleged that when she went to Kasarani Police Station, the couple recognised her, saying, “This is his grandmother”, shouting towards her, “Your son is a thief.”

Wanjiru also admitted that the information she got after visiting the farm and the scene was from third parties since the police did not disclose any information to her.

The defence lawyer informed Wanjiru that her grandson was found stealing from the house of a tenant at Horohio Apartment, referred to as Gichana Bosire. She denied the allegations, citing that “Cecelia Wangari and Allan Temba were the complainants who went to record their statements in Kasarani Police Station.”

She admitted to seeing the couple for the first time at Kasarani Police Station, where she found them on the day her grandson was murdered.

Following the incident, two accused persons, a couple, Cecelia Wangari and Allan Temba, were arrested and charged with the offence of murder contrary to Section 203 of the Penal Code.

They were charged that on May 11, 2022, they killed Maxwell Wamwea which is contrary to Section 203 of the Penal Code.