Couple linked to murder of 3-year-old arrested at Kenya-Tanzania border

The two suspects Phylis Njeri and her husband Jackson Ngui when they were arrested as they attempted to cross over to Tanzania. [DCI, Twitter]

A couple linked to the death of a three-year-old boy has been arrested.

Phylis Njeri and her husband Jackson Ngui were arrested by detectives from the directorate of Criminal Investigations as they attempted to cross over to Tanzania.

The arrests come after public outrage over the brutal murder of baby David Ndung’u, whose lifeless body was dumped at Mama Lucy Kibaki hospital last month.

Njeri is the prime suspect in the murder is said to have tortured the 3-year-old boy to death.

“The perpetrator was smoked out of her hideout at Illasit village, close to the Kenya-Tanzanian border, in a well-coordinated operation conducted by detectives drawn from the elite Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau (CRIB) augmented by detectives from the Homicide branch and a crack unit based at DCI Nairobi regional headquarters,” the DCI said.

The George Kinoti-led directorate said sleuths based at the Corporate Communications and Public Affairs unit had earlier gathered information circulating on social networking platforms regarding the baby’s murder most foul and shared details of the incident with the elite teams.

“Investigations were launched immediately, unearthing gory details of how angel David was brutally murdered by Njeri and her husband Ngui, while her horrified elder brother Peter Ndung’u watched in shock.

A screenshot of baby David Ndung'u and Phylis Njeri

The DCI said David and his six-year-old brother Peter had been left under the care of Njeri, by their mother Maureen Njoki, who had left the country in November last year for Saudi Arabia, in search of greener pastures.

Barely four months after her departure, Njoki received the devastating news of her son’s brutal killing, triggering online outrage by Kenyans who called on the DCI to bring the suspect to justice.

The joint team of detectives conducted thorough investigations into the incident and through the application of cyber and digital forensics, the suspects were traced at their hideout in the remote village in Kajiado county, as they desperately sought to cross the Kenyan border to Tanzania.

According to the detectives, further forensic analysis conducted at the couple’s house in Kwa Maji area within Mowlem, in Kamukunji sub-county, revealed that the baby was killed in the house before his body was dumped at Mama Lucy Kibaki’s hospital mortuary.

Upon realising the gravity of their actions, the couple desperately attempted to seek medication at local chemists but the little angel had already passed on.

The DCI said baby David’s body had severe burns on both hands, legs and buttocks with fresh injuries on the neck, the back and the face, signifying the amount of torture that the minor underwent, before his painful death.

The directorate said its detectives also recovered a whip that was used to assault the deceased’s elder brother who was beaten senselessly and threatened with dire consequences should he reveal what had happened to his brother.

The two suspects are currently being transferred to Nairobi where they will face murder charges.

The detectives based at the DCI National Forensic Laboratory, biology division and their scenes of crime counterparts shall be visiting the couple’s house for further DNA analysis of the scene to obtain more scientific evidence for a watertight case against the suspects.