Suspect in Machakos priest Maingi Kyengo's murder rearrested

Detectives in Embu County have rearrested a suspect in the 2019 murder of Catholic priest Maingi Kyengo.

Michael Muthini Mutunga went underground soon after he was released on a Sh300,000 bond by a court in the county.

A warrant of arrest was issued against Mr Mutunga after he failed to appear in court for the hearing of the murder case.

About a year later on Thursday, detectives flushed him out of his hideout in Nairobi him up for questioning. He will be taken back to Embu and may be charged with escaping after being freed on bond.

Mbeere South Sub-county police boss Gregory Mutiso said the matter was being handled by homicide detectives in Nairobi.

"I can't give much detail because the suspect was seized by officers in Nairobi, who are interrogating him," he said.

Father Kyengo disappeared on October, 8, 2019. His remains were found buried in a shallow grave on the banks of Mashamba seasonal river in Embu, where the prime suspect took detectives.

The throat had been slit and the body put in a gunny bag.

Detectives painstakingly investigated the murder, arresting a main suspect and securing crucial pieces of evidence linking him to the crime.

The exhibits included a sharp knife believed to have been the murder weapon and bloodstained clothes which someone had tried to wash.

The priest was based at Thatha Catholic parish in the neighbouring Machakos County.

The motive for his murder is yet to be established.