Alphonce Mung’ahu

A Nairobi court has granted police five more days to continue detaining a suspect in the killing of a woman whose body was found outside Santonio Court apartments in Kilimani area, Nairobi County.

Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Kennedy Cheruiyot allowed detectives to continue holding Shem Lwanga’ula Ng’eno until Monday to complete investigations into the murder of Sheila Njeri Muruge after a night of partying.

At the same time, the magistrate released his two other suspects namely Christine Awour Aluoch and Claire Chepkoech on a cash bail of Sh100,000 each.

This followed successful application by their lawyer Cliff Ombeta that the suspects are unwell and their continued detention them at police station amounted to exposing them to Covid-19 a pandemic.

He told the court that police have no masks at the station to supply to the suspects arrested.

However, the magistrate granted the request and ordered the two suspects to deposit in court cash bail of Sh100,000 each.

He also directed them to report to DCI office Kilimani daily until Monday when the case will be mentioned for further direction.

Prosecution Senior State Counsel Kennedy Panyako informed the court that detectives need five more days to complete investigations.

He told the court that officers from Directorate of Criminal Investigations in Kilimani arrested the three on July 17 at Santonio Courts within Kilimani area.

Corporal John Mmasi had told the court that Murage’s body was found in the morning of July 17, lying outside near a bed flower.

She had physical injuries on her back and blood was oozing from her nose. She also had bruises on her waist area and apparently, her clothes were torn.

Police preliminary investigations had revealed that the deceased and an identified group of people were at a party drinking and having fun in a house marked B03 on the second floor belonging to Chepkoech.

According to detectives, the party went in the said house and it is confirmed that the three suspects were physically present in the house during the fateful night.

Detectives claim the deceased was in that party until she was found dead early in the morning. When questioned on her whereabouts, the three gave contradicting statements.

The court heard that the facts disclosed during the physical inspection and processing of the scene of crime profoundly suggested that indeed police are dealing with a murder case.

The body of the deceased is at the City Mortuary awaiting a postmortem to determine the cause of death. The house where the body was found belongs to Claire.