Kiambu murders: Lawrence Warunge pleads not guilty
Detectives escort Lawrence Njoroge Warunge (centre) out of the Kiambu Law Courts on January 11, 2021.
Lawrence Warunge, the university student who shocked the country three months ago, after he was arrested over the murder of four family members and a farmhand in Kiambu, has pleaded not guilty to five murder charges.
Waruinge appeared virtually before Justice Mary Kasanga where he denied brutally killing his father Nicholas Warunge, his mother Ann Wanjiku, his nephew Maxwell Njenga, his brother Christian Njenga and farmhand James Kinyajui.
The court ordered that he be remanded in Nairobi until May 11 when pre-trial will start.
The suspect was set to take plea on Wednesday, but it was pushed to Thursday to allow the prosecution to complete a miscellaneous application that had been filed at the Kiambu Law Courts.
A recent mental test showed that Warunge is fit to stand trial.
Two other previous tests showed that he was mentally unfit.
The third test, which was presented in court on Tuesday, said that he was mentally stable.
Medical report
A medical assessment report presented in court on January 26 showed Lawrence has a history of smoking marijuana and drinking spirits, and has paranoid delusions.
“Lawrence is mentally unstable and is not fit to plead [to the charges]," stated the report, which followed an exam at Mathari.
The report further noted that Lawrence is suffering from induced psychosis - a severe mental disorder in which thought and emotions are so impaired that contact is lost with external reality.
On family history, the report says he had a frosty relationship with his father.
Lawrence’s girlfriend, Ms Sarah Muthoni, was his co-accused in the case but was acquitted on January 26 and is now a State witness.
Her release came after the prosecution’s application to turn her into a State witness was adopted by the court in the bid to unravel the murder mystery.
