Suspect in murder of JKUAT student admitted to hospital after attempted suicide

A suspect in the brutal murder of a Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) student has been admitted to hospital after he tried to commit suicide.

The man aged 24 was arrested from his aunt’s house in Mihang’o area Dandora, Nairobi over the macabre murder of his sister, 22 at their Kahawa Sukari home.

As police approached the house in which he was hiding, he stabbed himself seven times in the stomach and chest in efforts to kill himself.

Police rushed him to Aga Khan Hospital where he is admitted under guard. Ruiru police boss Isaac Thuranira said the suspect is recovering well and would take plea as soon as he is ready because preliminary evidence had tied him to the murder.

He was arrested after his sister Grace Nduta Mwaura’s body was discovered in their parents’ house on Thursday, February 2.

Police from Juja Police Station found her body parts including her limbs and intestines stuffed in a bucket and hidden in the ceiling of a house in Kahawa Sukari.

Other badly mutilated body parts were found at a coffee plantation in Kalimoni area in Juja, Kiambu County.

Ms Mwaura’s eyes had been gouged out, nearly her whole body and face was skinned and her tongue had been cut out in a ritual-like killing, police said.

Also found alongside her body parts were Ms Mwaura’s laptop and the knife that was used to in her killing.

The deceased, a Fourth Year student at JKUAT, was last seen on Wednesday, January 25, at 12 noon at her parents’ house in Kahawa Sukari.

Her disappearance was reported at Githurai Kimbo Police Station on January 29. The two were in their house when the sister went missing.

The brother who is now being treated as a prime suspect in Ms Mwaura’s murder case, reportedly fled their parents’ home when police visited the family to seek information that could help trace her whereabouts as investigations went on.

Police say they had visited the parents’ home and were talking to them regarding the incident when the suspect fled. He was later traced to Dandora where he was hiding in his aunt’s house.

Ms Mwaura’s friends had taken to social media and started hashtags (#FindGraceNduta and #PrayForNduta) to help find her.

Thuranira said they are yet to establish the motive of the incident.

“It is puzzling because this is a brother of the deceased. We don’t know why he did it and if he was alone,” said the police boss.