Two in court over Shantel Nzembi’s brutal murder
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Two suspects in the kidnapping and subsequent murder of an eight-year-old Grade Two pupil in Kitengela, Kajiado county, will be detained for 10 days to enable detectives complete investigations.
Livingstone Otengo, 27, and Francis Mikuhu, 42, were yesterday arraigned in a Kajiado court where detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) made an application to be granted more time to interrogate them.
Kajiado Resident Magistrate Edwin Mulochi granted the investigators 10 days to complete investigations. They did not object to the prosecution’s application for their detention for more days.
Otengo, a Kitengela-based boda boda rider, was arrested at midday on Wednesday at Orata area while in possession of a mobile phone that was used to demand ransom from the child’s parents while Mbuthia was nabbed at around 9pm on the same day in Kiserian.
Mbuthia was identified as the person whose identity card was used to register an Airtel mobile line that was to be used to receive the ransom. The number was given by a woman who had called the child’s mother demanding cash.
Anonymous caller
Detectives acting on mobile data analysis wooed Mbuthia whose occupation remains unknown to Kiserian police station where he was arrested before recording a statement at Kitengela police station.
Shantel Nzembi went missing on May 29 at around 3pm after which an anonymous female caller telephoned her mother Christine Ngina, demanding Sh300,000 ransom.
The girl was found murdered on May 31 with her body stashed in a gunny bag and dumped at Orata area.
Police last evening arrested the woman suspected to have kidnapped Nzembi on Sunday. She was arrested in Kitengela town as she chatted with an unidentified person.
Police believe she is the one who was hired to lure the minor and delivered her to her killers.
Isinya DCI boss Jeremiah Ndubai said investigators were upbeat that they would unravel the murder soon as the prime suspect had been profiled and is being sort by detectives.
“We have asked the prosecution for more days to ensure we analyse all details we have gathered from mobile analysis and witnesses who have recorded statements with the police. We are not leaving anything to chance and all accounts by witnesses are being pieced together to ensure justice prevails,” said Ndubai.
A detective privy to the investigations told People Daily that investigators are keenly following up a possible relationship between the abductors and a female police officer whose name was mentioned many times by the kidnappers.
“We want to establish the link between the mentioned officer. We are also keenly analysing money transactions that could have informed kidnappers on the amount of ransom to ask,” said a detective. Shantel’s body is lying at Shalom community mortuary in Kitengela awaiting a post-mortem, which is yet to be scheduled. The suspects are being held at Kitengela police station.
Private school
Preliminary investigations have also revealed that the killer gang could have mistaken Shantel for the daughter of an officer attached to the Gender Desk at the Kitengela police station.
The officer had earlier recorded a statement and further details yesterday as detectives seek to establish the identity and motive of the killers.
When the kidnapper first called Shantel’s mother Ngina, she called her “Mama Sharon”.
“I was shocked when the anonymous caller who informed me of the kidnapping kept on referring to me as “Mama Sharon” as they demanded ransom,” Ngina told People Daily.
Sharon, the daughter of the officer, studied with Shantel at a private school in Noonkopir area in Kitengela and the two were best friends who always played together.