Mystery of remandee accused of killing four brothers disappears from prison

A family in Nakuru County is mourning the death of a widow to one of four men murdered last year.

Rebecca Gathoni, was a widow to Paul Mutunga Ndirangu, 32, who was abducted before his body was found in Kamei forest, Thika.

Gathoni reportedly went missing after she left her home for Sachangwan trading centre. Her body was later found dumped along the road.

Police suspect she was killed elsewhere and her body dumped along the road in the wee hours of the night.

“The woman is suspected to have died at around 2am but her body was discovered at around 9.30am by pedestrians,” said Rongai OCPD Japheth Kioko.

A sack believed to have been used to stash the body and her shoes were recovered at the scene. Police suspect she was strangled to death.

Ndirangu was killed under mysterious circumstances together with his two brothers, Daniel Ikenya, 24, Mwai Ndirangu, 28, and a cousin, Francis Kariuki, 26. The four went missing after they left their home to register as voters at Barnabas trading centre on January 18, 2017. Their bodies were recovered in the forest on January 30, last year.

And the family’s quest for justice seems to be slipping away after the murder suspect escaped from remand on April 22, last year. Charles Njuguna alias Dennis Waweru went missing from Nakuru-GK Prison and his whereabouts are not known.

Before the murder he allegedly demanded ransom of Sh500, 000 from the family. “We Mungiki are the ones who have kidnapped... send the money or we kill” read a text from a Safaricom line sent on January 24.

The message was sent to Manaseh Ndirangu, the father of the three brothers.

Njuguna was arrested in Narok on February 29, last year and was arraigned in a Nakuru Chief Magistrate’s court. He was charged with sending threatening text messages.

One chilly morning, as prison warders prepared to take inmates to assignments and accompany remandees to court, the suspect who hails from Kiambu County keenly monitored their movement.

The warder in charge of the block where Njuguna was locked up took details of the inmates before the suspect walked out using an alias name at around 8am on April 22 and accompanied other prisoners to board the prison’s vehicle.

He was presented before court for mention of his case and taken back to the cells within the court rooms at around 12pm.

A prison officer stationed at the courts who requested anonymity, said the suspect together with other inmates left at around 5pm and arrived at the GK Prison located at Milimani at 5.30pm where he disappeared to date.

Surprisingly no prison break was reported, neither were there reports of a missing remandee. Were it not for the court, no one would have noticed he was missing.

James Sawe, then prison-charge was summoned to court and asked to explain the suspect’s whereabouts. He however sought more time to trace Njuguna.