DCI trails family member accused of orchestrating murder of Kiambu family

A house where the body of a guard killed by unknown assailants was found at Karura village in Kiambaa, Kiambu County. [David Njaaga, Standard]

Detectives are hunting for a relative suspected to have orchestrated the murder of the Kiambu family.

Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officers believe the suspect ushered in the attackers and participated in the killing of Nicholas Njoroge, his wife Ann, two children and a construction worker.

“This explains why there was no alarm by the family. We noted that there was no forced entry into the compound and we suspect that whoever it was must have had the keys to the two gates,” said a senior officer privy to the matter.

The suspect is said to have harboured a grudge against Njoroge and his wife.

Last year, he (the suspect) reported Anne to Rweno Police Station over claims of attempted poisoning.

It is not clear how the matter was resolved but Wangunyu sub-location senior assistant chief Francis Mugo confirmed to have gotten wind of the matter.

“This matter was never reported to me but I remember hearing about it from the police,” Mugo told Saturday Standard yesterday.

Detectives yesterday visited Naivasha town in search of the suspect, who is said to have fled to his girlfriend’s house after the murder.

A second team, comprising of officers from the DCI Homicide section, spent the better part of the day recording statements of the construction manager who found the body of his colleague and Njoroge’s relative who filed reports at Rweno Police Station.

Mugo said the site supervisor reported that two men ambushed him on his way to his murdered colleague’s house.

He fled to the bushes as the attackers, armed with crude weapons pursued him.

This incident happened at around 9.30 pm.

Mugo declined to speak on the possible motive of the attack but said “there is a message that they wanted to pass.”

Investigators have also managed to reconstruct the timelines of the fateful night based on the accounts of the senior assistant chief and Allan Njire, an elder brother of Njoroge.

Mugo was among the first administrators to arrive at the scene where the construction worker was murdered and at the home of Njoroge after he received a call from Njire at around 10pm, informing him that all was not well.

The senior assistant chief said the information provided by Njire was scanty and he therefore decided to call Anne to find out more details about the incident.

Anne could not be reached on phone and Mugo decided to call the area police boss and pass the same information.

When he reached the station commander, he learnt that a man who worked as a supervisor together with a relative of Njoroge had already informed the police of the murder of the construction worker.

Mugo said together with police and DCI officers from Karuri and Kiambu headquarters, they remained at the scene of murder until police completed dusting and mapping out the scene.

On the same night, the police had tried to reach Njoroge in vain.

There was no response from his home. The following morning the four bodies were found at Njoroge’s home.

Bodies of the wife and one son were found on the veranda next to the kitchen, while the body of the second boy was found in one of the bedrooms.

Njoroge’s body was found outside the main house.

Mugo who schooled with Njoroge at Wangunyu Primary School described him as a man of few words.

Before he moved to the US where he had been working for about 15 years. Njoroge operated a hardware in Ruaka town which he closed in the 1990s, Mugo said.