DPP Tobiko orders prosecution of police officer over murder of two university students

The Director of Public Prosecutions has ordered prosecution of a police constable over the murder of two Egerton University students in Nairobi in November last year.

Constable Patrick Thuranira, a police officer based at Central Police Station in Nairobi County and attached to the anti-mugging unit, will be charged with the murder of biochemistry students Dennis Ongwae Magomere and Felix Ngaywa Nyangena.

He is accused of killing the two at the Globe Cinema roundabout in Nairobi on November 7, 2014.

Felix was a second year Biochemistry student at Egertons’ Njoro Campus while Dennis was a General Science student.

The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) conducted investigations into the incident and established that the two were executed by Thuranira.

Investigators found that the two students had travelled from Egerton University, Njoro Campus to Nairobi on the day they were killed. They were accompanied by a friend and had travelled to Nairobi to follow up on their Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) loans at Anniversary Towers.

“The two students visited Anniversary Towers and later visited relatives within Nairobi. They were leaving the Nairobi CBD to a relative’s house in Mathare North when they encountered Constable Thuranira at about 9.40pm.”

Constable Thuranira was off duty and not in uniform but was armed with a pistol which he used to kill the two students, IPOA said in a statement.

IPOA investigations established that Mr. Magomere and Mr. Nyangena were not involved in any mugging as alleged by Thuranira.

Upon conclusion of the investigations, IPOA forwarded the file to the Director of Public Prosecutions with a recommendation that Thuranira be charged with murder and the DPP concurred with the recommendations.