Murder of magistrate’s girl: detectives make two arrests

Nine year old Maribel Kapolon, a class four pupil at Consolata Primary School who was reported to have gone missing on Thursday evening. She was on her way home from school at the time. [Standard/Courtesy]

Police were yesterday trying to piece together information on the murder of a nine-year-old girl who went missing 10 days ago.

The abduction and murder of Maribel Kapolon has stunned the nation and raised questions on who would want to kill her and why.

Maribel was the daughter of Caroline Kemei, a senior resident magistrate at the Githongo Law Courts. Ms Kemei is the highest ranking officer at the station, located 15km from Meru town.

Yesterday, Chief Justice David Maraga expressed "great shock" on learning of the death.

"On behalf of my family, the entire Judiciary and on my own behalf, I wish to express our deepest condolences and heartfelt sympathy to (Kemei) and the rest of the family," he said in a statement.

"Every effort is being made to find and punish her killers. I have already talked to the Cabinet secretary for Interior and the Director of Criminal Iinvestigations and they have given me a firm assurance that everything is being done to bring them to book," he added.

The Law Society of Kenya called for exhaustive investigations.

Possible threats

"Whereas we are not privy to the motive of the killing at this point, we are aware of the dangers of possible threats and intimidation faced by judicial officers and more so magistrates arising from the nature of their work," LSK President Allen Gichuhi said in a statement

He urged the Government to enhance the security of magistrates.

Police in Meru yesterday brushed off media inquiries on what could have gone wrong in what looks like a tale of omissions, errors and underestimation that ended with the death of the child.

Maribel was a Standard Four pupil at Consolata Primary School in Meru, where her elder brother also goes.

Those who knew Maribel described her as an easy-going child who socialised well.

She is believed to have been lured by her kidnappers after being dropped off along the Meru-Nanyuki highway at the Total Petrol Station junction near her home in Milimani.

The house in Milimani is one of the Government's quarters for senior civil servants. It is situated off the highway along a road where the first address is that of the Meru County Police Commander’s office.

One can also see the county commissioner's residence from here.

On September 6 at about 4.30pm Maribel was dropped off by the Consolata School bus together with two other schoolmates. As they walked to the gate, a man who had parked a saloon car nearby allegedly greeted Maribel by name.

Perhaps owing to her sociable nature she brushed off a warning from her schoolmates, who reminded her of the age-old advice not to speak to strangers.

“This one is my uncle, I know him very well,” police sources quote the two other children as having said.

The man was said to have led the child into the waiting car and it would be the last time Maribel, a tall slender child with an athletic body and an ever present smile, would be seen alive.

Consolata Primary School’s bus pool has four vehicles that pick up and drop off pupils in the morning and evening.

Maribel was dropped off 200 metres from her gate, thought to be a secure area near the county police commander’s office. It is not clear why she was not dropped off directly at her gate or if there were any instructions to have her handed over to a chaperone, as is the norm with most urban day school children. Contacted, the school said the head, Sister Anne Lucia, was the only one who could speak about the incident.

However, she did not answer our calls, but was believed to have accompanied Maribel's mother to identify the body at the mortuary.

Police records show that Maribel was reported missing at the Meru Town Police Station on the evening of her disappearance at 7pm.

By name

“Maribel Kapolon was called by a stranger by name. The girl went to listen to the stranger while two other children went away, leaving her behind with the stranger,” says the OB report at the station.

Junior police sources said a few days after the kidnapping, Maribel's mother received a call from a strange number and a Sh500,000 ransom was demanded. According to family sources, the demand was not entertained. It was not clear whether a report was immediately made to the police about the ransom. Family sources said the caller did not get in touch again.

Yesterday, those close to the magistrate, including her colleagues, family as well as senior police officers declined to comment on the matter.

The Meru County police commander, David Kirui, said two people had been arrested, one in Nairobi and the other in Meru.

According to unofficial police sources, the man arrested in Kayole, Nairobi, was believed to have made the ransom demand. “There are multiple angles to this murder which will all be looked at,” said one detective.