Sankale, key suspect in Jennifer Wambua murder case to take mental test

A Kiambu Court has ordered Peter Njenga alias ole Sankale, the prime suspect in the murder of a National Land Commission (NLC) official to undergo a mental assessment to ascertain if he is fit to stand trial.

Mr Njenga who appeared virtually before Kiambu Principal Magistrate Grace Omondo was directed to appear in court on Wednesday for further directions.

Nicholas Olesena, the investigating officer, told the court that they had cracked the murder case after DNA results placed Njenga at the crime scene.

Mr Olesena further requested the court for seven days to allow the suspect to undergo a mental assessment test.

At the same time, the DCI officer informed the court that police had closed the files of the two other suspects.

Njenga has been placed at the scene of the crime by forensic evidence as well as witnesses who saw him with Jennifer Wambua the last time she was seen alive in March.

Forensic results

“The forensic results are finally out, positively matching the suspect. Detectives established that the suspect had indeed interacted and spent quite some time with (her) at the location where the body was later discovered,” said DCI.

Njenga was arrested last month by homicide detectives from his house in Embulbul in Ngong, Kajiado County.

Embulbul is close to the spot where Ms Wambua’s body was found in a thicket in an open field at Kerarapon.

The suspect is accused of trailing Wambua to Ngong Forest where she had gone to pray. It has been established that he interacted and spent time with her at a location where her half-naked body was later discovered.

An autopsy conducted by government pathologist Johansen Oduor revealed there was sexual contact between Wambua and her killers.

A probe into Njenga’s criminal records showed that he committed similar offences in the past, as detectives grapple with how the suspect was a free man despite having been handed a death sentence in 2003.

Before her demise, Wambua had been advised by a pastor to go to a thicket in Ngong to pray for her problems to go away. It is the day she died. She was a state witness in a Sh122 million corruption case.

The pastor has been questioned by police and he confirmed that he spoke to her on the day she died.

Investigators say that after Wambua had finished her prayers, she met two other suspects in the murder probe.

She drank water believed to be laced with chemicals.