A shylock, dead woman and murder suspect

Had it not been for the gruesome murder of Mtwapa-based businesswoman Jacqueline Ngina Kitheka, Mr Hamisi Mohamed would perhaps still be operating his shylocking business.

Mr Mohamed, a witness in the murder of Ngina, testified before Mombasa High Court Judge Ann Ong’injo that he abandoned the shylocking business after the murder.

“I used to be a shylock, but I no longer engage in that business, I ventured into something else,” he told the judge on Wednesday.

Mr Mohamed testified in the case last year but was recalled for cross-examination by the lawyer representing Mr Robert Waliaula Kinisu, who has been charged with the murder of the woman.

The court was told that the suspect murdered the woman and concealed her body in a wardrobe at her home in Mtwapa, Kilifi County, before stealing her valuables, including mobile phones.

Ngina was due to wed her British fiancé.

The court was told that the suspect attacked Ngina at her home in the Marina area. Her body was discovered in her apartment around three days after she was killed.

The murder was committed between May 3 and 6, 2022, said the prosecution.

Mr Kinisu has, however, denied committing the offence.

Yesterday, Mr Mohamed finalised his testimony by affirming that it was Mr Kinisu who sold to him items that were stolen from Ngina’s house.

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“When the items were brought to my shop, I inspected and recorded each of them before paying Mr Kinisu Sh1,550 via M-Pesa,” he said.

The items included a blender, iron box, juice mixer, and a toaster. The items have been confirmed to have been stolen from the deceased’s house after she was murdered.

“I did not know that these items were related to a murder incident that the police were investigating at the time, I learnt about it while at the police station,” he said.

Mr Mohamed’s business remained closed for the days he was in custody while assisting the police with investigating the murder of the woman.

He said he was grateful that he had not sold the items by the time the police knocked on his door.

The witness had told the court that Mr Kinisu visited his business in Mtwapa one evening at around 8:30pm and asked for money take his wife to hospital.

Mr Kinisu used a different name then, said the witness. His name had appeared as Brown Kipande when the money was sent to his phone.

Mr Kinisu then left, but was back several days later, with more electronics, for which he was paid Sh2,020.

While delivering the items, Mr Mohamed said, Mr Kinisu had explained that he needed more money for hospital bills because his wife was admitted there.  

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Mr Mohamed would be arrested three weeks later, before being questioned about the M-Pesa transaction.

“On the second day, Kinisu was arrested and brought to the station. It was then that I discovered his real name is Kinisu and not Kipande as I had known him,” he told the court.

Mr Mohamed said he was released after recording a statement with the police explaining how he came to be in possession of the dead woman’s items.

A receptionist at Maya Lodge Guest House, where Mr Kinisu booked a room and left his bag, is one of the witnesses who have testified in the case.

Ms Ruth Wairiru positively identified Mr Kinisu as the man who left the bag that was later found to contain Ngina’s property.

Mr Kinisu was in 2018 sentenced to death for violently robbing and killing Mombasa-based model Janet Adhiambo Asuna at her Kizingo home.

However, he was acquitted by the High Court in 2019 on appeal after serving one year in prison.

The evidence tabled in that case confirmed he had withdrawn Sh26,600 from Adhiambo’s M-pesa account days after she was murdered.

He was charged that on June 7, 2016, he robbed Adhiambo of a cellphone, sandwich toaster, an iron box, and a mobile charger valued at Sh19,500, and during the time of robbery, killed her.

The court had been told that Kinisu allegedly used a wooden stool to batter the woman to death.

The hearing will continue on May 15 and 16.

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