Slain couple's phones reveal money trail

Suspects in the murder of US-based couple in Nyamira from left: Peter Njoroge Kirika, Dennis Ondara Clement, Peris Ondara and Ezekiel Mogeni Migiro when they appeared before Nyamira High Court where they denied murder charges. [Stanley Ongwae, Standard]

The court hearing the case on the murder of a US-based couple at their Nyamakoroto home in Nyamira County has been told how money was transferred from their phones on the night they were killed.

A trial witness, who initially was a suspect in the murder case, narrated to the court how his friend, Peter Njoroge Kirika, borrowed a mobile phone from him in the evening that preceded the fateful night Edward Nyangechi Morema and his wife Grace Mong'ina Morema were slain in cold blood.

Kirika is one of the suspects implicated in the brutal murder of the couple and has been listed as the fourth suspect.

Grace and her husband, who had visited their Nyamakoroto home in Masaba North, were killed on March 20, 2023. Their bodies were discovered the following day by neighbours.

Four suspects - Ezekiel Mogeni Migiro, Peris Ondara, Denis Ondara Clement and Peter Njoroge Kirika - are in remand in connection with the killing.

They have all denied the charges.

Charles Kibui Mbugua, a businessman in Mathioya, told Justice Winfridah Okwany that on the evening the offence was committed, his neighbour Kirika and a customer had gone to him and requested a mobile phone which he was to use to receive some money he was expecting.

"I gave him my phone which I use for my butchery business because he told me he had a problem with his phone," Mbugua told the court.

In his testimony, Mbugua said the mobile phone he gave to Kirika was registered under the name of Douglas Mungai, a person he had formerly employed in his butchery shop but had abandoned work.

According to Mbugua, Kirika brought the phone back to him the following day at around 5.30pm but without a SIM card.

He further told the court that the suspect later requested him to throw away the mobile handset he had borrowed from him.

Mbugua told the court that he was arrested on May 2, 2023, at a bar in Mathioya, after which he helped the Directorate of Criminal Investigations officers in identifying Kirika in a closed circuit television (CCTV) footage that was in the possession of the detectives.

James Makobi, a DCI detective attached to a telecommunication company, Safaricom, revealed to the court that the questionable mobile phone received a total of Sh62,000 from the deceased victims' phones on the night of the killings.

Makobi said on March 20, 2023, at around 11.50pm, Sh30,000 from Grace's phone was transferred to the witness's mobile phone number after a similar transaction of Sh26,000 and Sh6,000 had been made from Morema's phone at between 11.29pm and 11.32pm.

The witness's mobile phone, the court heard, was also used to withdraw Sh35,000 from a Cooperative Bank ATM branch in Limuru.

The case will proceed on March 25 next year when the prosecution is expected to line up three more witnesses to testify against the suspects.

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