Suspect in city lawyer’s murder detained for 14 days

 

The foreign national arrested in connection with the murder of city lawyer Elizabeth Koki will be in police cell for 14 more days pending investigations.

Principal magistrate Bernard Kasavuli ordered that Christian Mwambay Kadima be remanded at the Mlolongo police station after the prosecution made a miscellaneous application when the suspect was produced at the Mavoko law courts on Monday.

Koki ran Koki & Associates Advocates and was also an HR consultant. She was found dead in her four-bedroom house in Syokimau last week. 

The suspect was arrested on January 8 in a lodging within Nairobi. He will be produced in court on January 25 for mention. He didn’t take a plea as the prosecution said it needed more time to investigate his real identity alongside his alleged involvement in the murder.

The court heard that the suspect’s real identity had not been established yet. The prosecution said Kadima had a Kenyan Safaricom line 0742640835 registered using a South African passport fpfn476441763 under the name Zuchiswa Genevieve.

It further said the suspect’s purported Kenyan temporary passport number 870018 was registered under the name of Eric Kambugi Katalai Kadima. The suspect allegedly fled to Kenya from South Africa in 2017. He is a wanted man in South Africa.

Investigators revealed that police in South Africa were pursuing a man called Euloge Christian Kadima and suspected to be him. The man escaped after allegedly assaulting a woman, skipped bail and fled to Kenya. A warrant of arrest was subsequently issued against him.

The prosecution made the application under miscellaneous application number 84421, with officer Anthony Matuto as the applicant verses Uknown Allias Christian Baledi Kadima Allias Eric Kambaye Katalayi as the respondent.

“That this honourable court may be pleased to issue an order for the respondent to be detained at Mlolongo police station for a period of 14 days to enable the applicant to complete investigations,” the application read.

The suspect did not oppose the application.

Koki’s father, who attended the session among other family members, broke in tears after the suspect was remanded for 14 more days.

Law Society of Kenya vice president Caroline Kamende appeared in court as the lead counsel. She was accompanied by several advocates representing the LSK, FIDA Kenya and the bereaved family.

Kamende said they will follow up on the matter to ensure justice is served. She said Koki was industrious, ambitious and lovely and therefore the LSK has lost an important person. She had practised law for nine years. She is survived by two children aged nine and three years.

Four people were on Sunday grilled by DCI detectives at Mlolongo police station. They included a woman who was in the suspect’s company during his arrest on Friday and two others found in Koki’s car.

Koki's car, Vokswagen KCQ 999 K that the suspects allegedly used to escape from the scene, was recovered at Marsabit House along Ngong Road. He had given it out to someone else to return to her family, according to detectives.

Koki's body had signs of strangulation, with injuries that might have led to her death. Her bed was also blood-stained. The body was reportedly discovered by her house help inside her bedroom at her house on Ferndale Court along Parliament Road on Friday morning.

It is said that the suspect on Thursday night drove to the apartment at around 8pm and went straight into Koki’s bedroom. The bedroom has since been secured by police as a crime scene. DCI officers from the Homicide Department dusted the scene on Thursday.

An empty packet of a pain killer tablet 'Mara Moja' was on bedside cabinet when the detectives visited. A wrist watch was also recovered from the scene of crime by the detectives. There was also a bra suspected to be Koki's and a bottle of a drug.