Murder case delayed after fresh application over detained vehicle

Judy Wangui Mungai and Michel Githae Mathenge before the High Court in Kiambu yesterday. [Kamau Maichuhie, Standard]

The case in which two people have been charged with the murder of businesswoman Mary Wambui Kamangara failed to start yesterday following a new application.

Joseph Kori, Wambui's widower, was to take to the witness stand at the High Court in Kiambu when it emerged that businessman Ephantus Nyaga Njagi had filed an application seeking orders to compel police to release his car.

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) were named as respondents in Mr Nyaga's application.

The vehicle has been held at DCI headquarters since Wambui was killed in January.

In the suit, he said he had hired out the car to one of the accused before it was impounded.

Njagi said he feared his vehicle would be vandalised at the DCI headquarters where it had been since January.

He also argued that detaining the car would cause him massive losses. “Unless this application is allowed, I stand to continue suffering grave and irreparable financial losses and damage,” he said in his court documents.

Njagi said if police wanted to use the car as exhibit, photographic evidence would be sufficient.

He said he would be ready to produce the car during the hearing of the case whenever required. “The offence that the accused persons have been charged with does not warrant continued detention of the vehicle,” he said.

In the case, Judy Wangui Mungai and Michel Githae Mathenge were, in March, charged with the murder of Wambui.

Wangui and Mathenge were charged that on January 26 and 27, they, jointly with others not before court, at Fourways Junction Estate on Kiambu-Nairobi Road, murdered Wambui. 

Njagi's application will be heard on November 4, while the case will be heard on June 10 and 11, 2020.