Slain Kiru principal's wife froze his bank accounts when he went missing

Ms Jane Muthoni, the former headmistress of Icaciri Secondary School in Kiambu, who is facing charges of hiring killers to murder her husband, suffered a blow on Wednesday after High Court Judge declined to grant her an order allowing her daughter to re-testify.

The application was rejected by Justice Joel Ngugi, noting that recalling a witness at the defence stage would lead to a mistrial.

He said the witness was likely to recant evidence because the prosecution had already paraded 21 witnesses since 2017 and case closed in November 2019.

Justice Ngugi said the accused's daughter's testimony is likely to cause an embarrassment and imprudence to the prosecution.

The judge further noted that defence lawyer Francis Njanja had not informed the court or the prosecution, disclosed or given an explanation as to why he needed witness PW4 to be recalled.

The deceased, Mr Solomon Mwangi, a former principal of Kiru Boy’s Secondary School, was murdered on November 6, 2016, in Juja, Kiambu County.

The murder plot leaked after one of the hired killers, Joseph Njuguna, alias Karis blew the lid on how the heinous crime was committed after he was only paid Sh100,000 of the Sh300,000 he had been promised for a successful job.

Mr Njuguna is now a state witness after he pleaded guilty to charges of manslaughter. He is currently serving a seven-year sentence at Kamiti Maximum Prison.

The murder case has been ongoing in Nakuru Law Courts after Justice Ngugi was transferred but he chose to hold the session in Thika Law Courts where he was initially handling it.

Murder plot

On Wednesday, during the cross-examination by the prosecution team, data and phone records from Safaricom placed the murder suspects Issac Ng’ang’a, Ms Muthoni and another suspect, only identified in court as Mr Njiru, at the centre of the murder plot.

The third suspect has been large since the murder was committed.

Mr Ng’ang’a admitted in court that he knew Mr Njiru as a businessman and as a friend, but denied hatching the murder plot.

“I was introduced to Karis by Mr Njiru and our discussion was on how we can expand our miraa (khat) business in Murang’a. We never discussed murdering the deceased,” Mr Ng’ang’a told the court.

And in a fresh twist to the case, on Wednesday, a witness, Ms Esther Wambui, who is a sister of the slain principal's wife told the court that her sister froze her husband's accounts the moment he was reported missing.

Ms Wambui also told the court that the body of the deceased was found with broken teeth and other injuries.

Njuguna, in his confession to the court that led to the arrests of the other suspects, said Ms Muthoni wanted her husband killed because she suspected of him of being in an illicit relationship with a certain M-Pesa shop attendant in Murang’a.

Mr Njuguna had also told the court that both Mr Ng’ang’a and Mr Njiru visited their target in Kiria-ini, Murang’a County and cosmetically bought a soft drink from their would-be victim's shop, where Mr Njiru detailed the task he wanted them to execute.

But according to Mr Njuguna, the location was not convenient for murder since their target's shop was next to an Equity Bank and a police station.

Murder mission

According to the witness, it is at this point that they were told by their financier to change the murder mission and instead kill the man. 

The court was told that Ms Muthoni then hired a vehicle on November 6, 2016, and informed her husband to accompany her to view a commercial plot they had purposed to purchase from Urithi Housing Cooperative Society in Kiambu county.

That night, Ms Muthoni had picked her husband from work and the two had slept at her house in Kiambu, having travelled from Kiria-ini.

It is alleged that Muthoni called the hired killers and told them to meet her the next day at Urithi near Ndarugo along Thika Road.

The following day, Mr Mwangi was drugged by her wife and handed over to the killers who strangled him using a rope.

The case will be mentioned on December 7, 2020.