Detectives raided a church in
Nairobi and recovered a mobile phone belonging to slain Multimedia University
(MMU) student Sylivia Kemunto.
This is after the suspect, Philip
Eric Mutinda, told police he had offered the mobile phone to the church on
Monday, March 31, after the murder of a fellow student near Ongata Rongai.
Mutinda allegedly told police he had
confiscated her phone and offered it to the church in Nairobi as an offering.
Detectives pursuing the matter
visited and recovered the device, marking a major breakthrough in the probe.
The team interrogated the managers
of the church and confirmed that the gadget was offered by Mutinda, officials
said.
Mutinda allegedly confessed to
police, saying he and the slain woman had been in a relationship, but they had
differences, which he was trying to reconcile.
On the day of her death on March 30,
he went to her room and tried to reconcile with Kemunto, but his efforts
failed, leading to a violent altercation.
It is alleged that Mutinda pushed
Kemunto into a wall and bed and strangled her with a rope from a hoodie.
She sustained head injuries from the
hit on the wall.
He then bundled the body in a
suitcase and transported it to his room.
He said he covered the body with a
blanket, left for a walk, and returned approximately 40 minutes later.
Investigations show that Mutinda
moved the body back into the suitcase and slept.
In the early morning of March 31, at
around 4 am, he reportedly transferred it to a tank where it was found.
He told police he then removed her
SIM card, discarded it within the Multimedia University compound, but retained
the phone.
He later visited the church and gave
Kemunto’s phone as an offering.
Mutinda then traveled home before
confessing to his family.
His parents escorted him to Sultan
Hamud Police Station, where he surrendered.
An autopsy on the body suggested she
was strangled.
She also had head injuries inflicted
by a blunt object.
Chief government pathologist Dr.
Johansen Oduor and family pathologist Dr. Martha Mwangi said the student also
had defensive injuries, indicating she tried to fight off her assailant.
“We saw injuries on the neck, which
are typical of people who have been strangled. This indicates that the victim
was deprived of oxygen at the time of death. Based on these findings, we
concluded that the cause of Sylvia's death was strangulation,” said Oduor.
The autopsy showed the body was
decomposed when it was discovered on April 2 in a water tank at the college
hostel.
The postmortem was conducted at
Montezuma Funeral Home in Nairobi on April 8 and was attended by the police investigating
the murder and the family.
Kibera Magistrate Zainab Abdul ruled
Monday, April 7, that Mutinda be held at Capital Hill police station until
April 28 to allow the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to complete his
investigations.
According to court documents,
Kemunto had been reported missing on April 1 by her mother, Teresia Ayai.
Kemunto’s body was discovered on
April 2 during a search conducted by the university's security team atop Block
B Hostel.
The victim, through their lawyers
Danstan Omari and Shadrack Wambui, urged the court to take judicial notice of
the rise in femicide, calling it a gender issue.
Omari added that the incident
occurred within a university meant to be safe and questioned the institution’s
role in student safety.
