Student murdered with IEBC man was strangled with a rope

The woman found dead alongside slain Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission ICT manager Chris Msando was strangled using a rope, a postmortem report shows.

An autopsy conducted at the City Mortuary Thursday showed Maryanne Wairimu Ngumbu, 21 also had bruises on her hands probably after being tied.

This came as police revealed they had questioned and recorded statements from six people over the murder of the woman and Msando.

Four others who police termed as persons of interest are being sought, Inspector-General Joseph Boinnet said.

Government Chief Pathologist Johansen Oduor said her neck and throat were squeezed by killers who police are yet to catch up with.

“She died out of asphyxia due to ligature strangulation. This means she could not breath due to tying of the neck by rope,” said Dr Oduor.

The autopsy carried out at City Mortuary in Nairobi was witnessed by Ms Ngumbu's family and police. The family was allowed to move the body to another mortuary in Gachie for burial arrangements.

Police also picked samples from her body to establish if there was any form of disturbance on it.

Boinnet said detectives were hunting for four other persons of interest.

The six were bonded as investigations go on.

"Six statements have been recorded and we are pursuing four persons who are of interest," said Boinnet.

Sources said among those police want to talk to is a man who walked with Msando to a bar along Koinange Street on Friday night, hours before his abduction.

The officers also want to talk to a woman who was captured on CCTV cameras in the city riding in Msando’s four-wheel drive car.

It is not clear what role the suspects played in the murder of the two but they have been placed at the centre of the crime.

The team has so far visited Number 7 bar and restaurant and reviewed CCTV cameras as part of efforts to identify the man who walked in there with Msando and left minutes later.

Cameras near the bar, Koinange Street and University Way would come in handy if they were working then and captured activities there.

Msando was also strangled after he and the woman were abducted from the city centre.

His body alongside that of the nutrition student were found dumped in a forest in Kikuyu area on Saturday long after their abduction. They were naked then.