June Jerop murder: Main suspect Jesse Wafula freed on Sh20,000 bail
June Jerop Kangogo an accountant at National Industrial Training Authority and an MBA student at Kenyatta University. Her body was found dumped in Nairobi.
Businessman Jesse Wafula Walukha, the main suspect in the murder of government accountant June Jerop Kangogo, has been released on a police cash bail of Sh20,000 pending conclusion of the investigations.
Police released him Friday following an order by a magistrate’s court in Makadara, Nairobi.
The court ordered that Mr Walukha, who had been in police custody since his arrest on March 23, be released on bond terms like the other two suspects in the case.
The Office of Director of Public Prosecutions has since directed investigators to cover outstanding parts of the investigation such as DNA analysis, collection of eyewitness testimonies, and recovery of CCTV footage and financial records before the prosecutors can make the decision to charge.
The ODPP, in a letter dated April 23, 2023 to the police, also indicated that although the cell phone data analysis was significant in tracking the movements of Kangogo and the suspects on the night of March 18 and 19, it was not conclusive and needed to be supported by additional evidence.
The three suspects will appear in court on April 25, when the case will be mentioned and the court informed of the progress made in investigations.
Kangogo was an accountant at the State-owned National Industrial Training Authority (Nita) in Nairobi and a Master’s student at Kenyatta University.
She was found dead on March 21 after she went missing two days earlier, her body dumped near Jamhuri Primary School. It was alleged that she had gone for a coffee date with a man, whom investigators are yet to identify.
A postmortem the 36-year-old woman died from excessive bleeding after being stabbed in the chest. The exam which took place at the Montezuma Monalisa Funeral Home in Nairobi, found a deep cut in the chest, caused by a sharp object.
Mr Wafula, while asking the court to order police to release him, said there was no tangible evidence tying him to Kangogo or to the murder and that he had “nothing to do with her death”.
On allegations of having a coffee date with her prior to her death, he said he had never met her and that he “has nothing to hide".
However, through lawyer John Swaka, the suspect said Kangogo contacted him on March 17 and the following day but that they did not manage to talk on both occasions.
“Both times Kangogo tried to contact Mr Walukha, he did not manage to answer the calls. He was informed of her death by the officers … he could not believe she had passed away. Before he could even process her passing away, he was arrested. Before he could even process her passing away, he was arrested,” said Mr Swaka.
He added that his client and Kangogo were business partners and that she owed him Sh1 million, which she was repaying.
Mr Wafula, an ICT expert and businessman operating in Nairobi and Bungoma, said the debt stemmed from a salvaged car he sold to Kangogo.
His lawyer said Kangogo was also using Mr Wafula's company to apply for tenders in the organisation where she was working.
The suspect complained of discrimination since police had released the other two suspects on cash bail, “yet the current investigation reports show that the police are leaning towards the suspect being an employee of where Kangogo was working”.
The court heard that the other two were Kangogo's colleagues at work.
