Jennifer Wambua murder: 2 suspects taken to court, detained until April 23
Veteran Machakos journalist Jennifer Itumbi Wambua, who went missing on March 12, 2021.
A Kiambu court has allowed the police to detain the key suspects in the murder of a senior Lands official, Jennifer Wambua, for 14 days to allow them conclude their investigations.
The prosecution team made up of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) had made a miscellaneous application in court seeking to detain the key suspects, Benjamin Saitoti Patel and David Sempuan, for 14 days.
Police say the two have been linked to the murder plot of Ms Wambua, an employee of the National Lands Commission (NLC) who was brutally murdered on March 12. Her remains were found in a thicket at Kerarapon in Ngong, Kajiado County, less than 24 hours after she left her place of work never to return.
The accused, who appeared before Kiambu chief magistrate Ms Patricia Gichohi, did not protest the decision to detain them further and will now be held at Muthaiga Police Station until April 23 when they will be brought back to court.
Until her death, Ms Wambua was a state witness and was scheduled to be cross examined in a Sh122.3 million theft case against a former Principal Secretary, Lugari MP Ayub Savula, his two wives and 27 others.
The suspects in the theft case were jointly charged that between July 1, 2015 and August 30, 2018 at the State Department for Broadcasting and Telecommunications, Ministry of Information Communication and Technology, within Nairobi County, they conspired to commit a felony, namely stealing Sh122,335,500 from the ministry.
Former National Lands Commission deputy communications director Jennifer Wambua, who was found murdered and her body dumped in Kajiado County on March 12, 2021.
Ms Wambua’s body was found on a Saturday after she was reported missing by her husband, Mr Joseph Komu, an employee of the Ministry of Agriculture.
A post-mortem would later reveal that she was raped and strangled by her killers.
The slain NLC official received dozens of strange calls in the days preceding her murder, analysis of her mobile phone revealed.
Some of the calls, according to sources close to the investigation, were never picked as the callers were hanging up even before Ms Wambua had a chance to respond.
