Bluetooth speaker places student at a crime scene

A court heard how a Bluetooth speaker allegedly placed a student at the scene of crime during the Gen Z protests that saw Kikuyu administration offices, including the Constituency Development Fund office, burnt down on June 25, 2024.

Joseph Irungu, a teacher at Muguga Wa Gatonye High School, told the court that his attention and that of his fellow teachers was attracted following the mugshot photo of one of their students appearing on the DCI Facebook page.

“I arrived at the school on that particular morning and found teachers speaking in hushed tones after one of our students appeared on DCI X and Facebook pages. We had to act to establish the truth as the school disciplinary committee so we called the student for interrogation,” Irungu told the court.

Upon interrogation, the student confirmed that he was part of the protests that rocked Kikuyu town.

“We interrogated the boy in school in our special disciplinary committee headed by our deputy head teacher. It is during this interrogation that he confirmed to us that he was part of the protest and indeed he took away a Bluetooth speaker form the burnt offices,” Irungu said.

Irungu added that the disciplinary committee called the boy’s mother over the findings.

“We gave the boy a phone which he used to call his mother and directed her where he had hidden the Bluetooth speaker. The mother proceeded to the school with the small speaker,” Irungu said.

Kigathe Kionywe, Gilbert muriithi, Paul Kuria, Maxwell Njoroge, Samuel Wanjohi, Joseph Kuru and Naftally Njama were accused of setting fire on the CDF office valued at 20 million.

Kiambu Senior Principal Magistrate Zipporah Gichana directed that the matter comes up for hearing on September 22.