Nigerian suspects in Rita Waeni’s murder case freed
Nigerians suspected of killing and dismembering the body of Rita Waeni at the Makadara Law Courts on January 22, 2024.
What you need to know:
- The two Nigerian men suspected to have disappeared with the late Rita Waeni's head have been released conditionally.
- William Opia and Johnbull Asbor were directed to appear before the investigation team at the DCI's Homicide Unit offices once a week.
The two Nigerian men suspected to have disappeared with the late Rita Waeni's head have been released conditionally.
William Opia and Johnbull Asbor were directed to appear before the investigation team at the DCI's Homicide Unit offices once a week.
They were released by Senior Principal Magistrate Agnes Mwangi of the Makadara Law Courts.
The police are still looking for the suspect involved in the murder of Waeni who was a student at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT).
The two were found with weapons resembling those used to dismember the body of the deceased, but investigations did not link them to the murder.
However, they are suspected to have bought the weapons from an online vendor who sold the same items to a person suspected to have killed Waeni.
The court had on January 31, 2024, allowed the police to detain the duo for 21 days to collect DNA samples and carry out an analysis and comparison to see if they matched the samples collected at the murder scene.
At the time of arrest, Opia's passport had expired, while Asbor did not have any travel documents.
Asbor told detectives that he lost his passport two years ago.
The suspects were traced by the DCI’s Criminal Research and Intelligence Bureau (CRIB) detectives to an apartment in Ndenderu in Kiambu County where they were picked.
Constable Benjamin Wangila of Kasarani DCI offices told Makadara court that the suspects were living not very far from the area where a head suspected to be Waeni’s was recovered. The head was recovered at a dam in Kiambu on January 21, 2024.
A hatchet, butcher’s knife, a national identity card belonging to a Kenyan (name withheld), six mobile phones, three laptops, 10 SIM cards from different telecom service providers and other items were recovered at the house where the two suspects were living.
