Police have identified a woman murdered at Karatina University on Valentine's Day as Bonita Ngatha Kariuki.
On Valentine’s Day, a male student at Karatina University returned to his room at around 3pm, oblivious to the shock that awaited him.
On opening the door, horror lay before his eyes.
On the floor, a woman lay in a pool of blood, a blood-stained knife believed to have been the suspected murder weapon beside her lifeless body.
The suspect? His roommate — a 25-year-old first-year student. While the suspect has since gone underground, the student who found the body is in police custody alongside another colleague to help detectives piece together events that may have led to the murder.
The murdered woman, identified by police as Bonita Ngatha Kariuki, 21, hails from Embu County and was pursuing a bachelor of education degree before she met her death allegedly at the hands of her boyfriend.
Stabbed in the neck
According to Mathira East sub-County police commander Samson Leweri, she was attacked in the male hostel on Friday, February 14, 2025, after spending the better part of the day with the suspect.
Mr Leweri said preliminary investigations showed that the suspect killed the deceased by stabbing her in the neck twice before locking the hostel room from outside.
He then fled, leaving behind a blood-stained knife believed to have been used in the killing. His blood-stained mobile phone was also recovered at the scene.
The police boss said two other students who had interacted with the prime suspect were helping detectives with the investigation.
"We have dispatched a team of DCI detectives to track down the suspect, while his two colleagues who are in our custody are giving us crucial leads. I am sure we will get him and the two will be prosecution witnesses once we apprehend and arraign the suspect for murder,” he said.
Guarded with details
Detectives remained tight-lipped on information that the two students had revealed, saying the investigation was still in initial stages.
It was not also immediately clear whether the suspect had earlier shown any signs that he was not on good terms with his girlfriend.
Mr Leweri said the victim's parents recorded statements on Saturday in connection with the tragic end of the life of their daughter.
The deceased's body was moved to Karatina Level Four Hospital Mortuary, where a post-mortem is expected to be conducted.
The police sent out an alert and asked members of the public to report to police information leading to the arrest of the suspect and asked him to surrender, warning that efforts to locate him for questioning and possible prosecution were underway.
“Officers are in pursuit and he will not escape. We call upon him to surrender,” the police boss said.
