DCI revisits car accident in Machakos as search for the killers of NLC staff continues

Slain National Lands Commission (NLC) official Jennifer Wambua. [Courtesy]

As friends and family of the murdered NLC deputy Communications Director Jenniffer Wambua gathered at Machakos Golf club for a funeral service, homicide investigators pitched tent at the nearby Machakos police station.

The investigators from Nairobi spent the better part of the day reviewing investigations files into a car accident that occurred only weeks before her mysterious death.

The investigators want to establish if there was any relationship between the March 6 accident in Machakos town and her death.

Records at the Machakos traffic department indicate that Wambua, who was alone in her car, a Subaru, was involved in an accident with another motorist.

The report states that Wambua rammed into the other vehicle, which was headed to Nairobi from Machako's direction.

Both cars were slightly damaged. Machakos traffic officers referred the matter for compensation by the respective insurance companies according to sources familiar with the matter.

The homicide investigators are seeking to understand the nature of the accident and verify if it was an attempt on the life of the journalist.

A special investigations team comprising of officers from the DCI homicide, Kilimani DCI and the Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau has been constituted to probe the death of Wambua.

The car accident theory is one of the credible leads that the investigators are following so far.

The investigators are also looking into the possibility that Wambua's death could be linked to a series of criminal court cases in which she had testified in court.

A postmortem examination conducted last week has since revealed that Wambua died fighting his attackers.

Government pathologist Johansen Odour who conducted the autopsy has said Wambua suffered multiple injuries on her hands and feet as she defended herself from her attackers who strangled her to death.

Makueni MP Dan Maanzo, who is the family spokesman released the results on behalf of the family.

The police have so far established from CCTV footage that Wambua could have been abducted from the car park moments after she was seen walking out of her office at around 10am last Friday.

Investigators have also ascertained that Wambua did not forget her personal effects among them her handbag, phone and her food when the husband dropped her at her office the same day at around 6.35am, Friday.

Detectives privy to the matter said Wambua was captured on CCTV carrying her belongings when she left her office the same day.

The mobile phone, food and handbag were found in the boot of their car by the husband at around 1pm last Friday.

The investigators have cross-checked this information with the husband who told the police that Wambua normally kept her bag next to herself and not in the boot of their car.

The spare key, which she used to open the car, was also found inside her handbag.

This, the police explained, could only mean that either Wambua opened the car, or someone else who had the keys to the car and her personal belongings accessed the vehicle and dumped them inside.

The investigators have now shifted their focus to the parking yard where if the police are lucky to find CCTV footage, the murder mystery could be solved.

“The spare key was inside her bag which was in the car. This means that she (Wambua) may have been at the parking yard at some point “said the source.

In her last days, Wambua was a disturbed woman to the point of growing paranoid about working at NLC, according to her family.

Wambua went missing from her place of work last Friday and her body was later found by a herdsman in Ngong Forest, three days later.

Nairobi Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi, who was hearing Wambua's matter was also in shock.

“In my many years of practice and experience, I have never had such an incident. It is important that the matter be handled in an open court on Thursday morning so that the parties can be heard on the issue of her death,” Mr Andayi said of the matter.