A university student linked to the murder of a fellow student at Multimedia University (MMU) claims the victim died after he hit her during a fight.
Police said the suspect is a first-year Electrical Engineering student. He is expected in court on Monday, April 7, as officers seek to detain him further for investigations into the death of Sylvia Kemunto, 20.
Detectives are yet to conduct an autopsy to establish the cause of death.
The suspect surrendered to police at Sultan Hamud police station in Makueni County on April 3, after being on the run since March 31. He is believed to have fled to his rural home after allegedly killing Kemunto and stashing her body in a water tank at the university.
Kemunto, a first-year student pursuing Mass Communication and Computer Science, reportedly died on March 30.
The suspect told police he visited Kemunto’s room that day, knowing she would be alone. He said he had been trying to seduce her, but she resisted. A confrontation ensued when he tried to touch her, during which he hit and pushed her, causing her to hit her head on the wall and collapse. He said he realized she was dead minutes later.
He allegedly folded her body into a large suitcase, took it to his room briefly, then dumped it in a rooftop water tank.
“The fight turned fatal. He panicked, dumped the body in the tank, and fled,” said a police officer involved in the investigation. The tank was in use at the time.
Kemunto’s mother, Triza Kwamboka, began searching for her daughter on March 30 after she failed to reach her. Concerned, she traveled from Kawangware to the university and found Kemunto missing. The college confirmed her absence, and a report was filed at Lang’ata Police Station.
Kwamboka told police her daughter had previously complained about a fellow student making unwanted advances.
Police believe Kemunto was killed in her room and her body dragged to the rooftop. The killer then tied the tank with a wire and placed a stone on it to avoid detection.
Her roommate told police she had left for church that day, leaving Kemunto alone. Witnesses later saw the suspect dragging a suitcase from Kemunto’s room to his own in a different block. That night, the suspect’s roommate noticed the suitcase in their room, but it was gone the following morning.
“The next morning, I woke up around 8 and noticed that both the guy and the suitcase were gone,” the roommate said.
Police traced Kemunto’s phone signal to within the university compound. It was later switched off near Ongata Rongai, prompting a campus-wide search.
On April 2, a foul smell led the search team to Block E. Kemunto’s decomposing body was discovered in a water tank on the rooftop and moved to the mortuary. An autopsy is planned to confirm the cause of death.
The case adds to the growing number of murders targeting women in the country.
by CYRUS OMBATI
