Was it love gone sour, hate or theft? Puzzle in Jowie murder plot

Joseph Irungu alias Jowie and late businesswoman Monica Kimani. [File, Standard]

Monica Kimani died a very painful and cruel death.

It was a grisly death, High Court Judge Grace Nzioka said on Friday.

All pointers led to Joseph Irungu, also known as Jowie to the September 19, 2018 murder that happened at Lamuria Gardens, Kilimani.

What put Jowie at the heart of the gruesome murder was technology triangulation, stolen identification card, clothing and his lies.

After a trial that took nearly six years, Jowie was tasked to shoulder the blame based on ‘last seen’ doctrine, which dictates that the person who’s last seen a murdered person is likely to have killed the deceased and has to explain.

At the same time, the court was satisfied that malice aforethought had been proved. Malice aforethought in law means that someone had a predetermined intent to cause harm.

This is out of hate, anger, or revenge.

 Cases that revolve malice aforethought are homicide, aggravated battery, arson, rape, and kidnapping, and sometimes robbery with violence.

 However, the only pertinent question that many asked was why he did kill her.

 Jennings, a prosecution witness eight told the court that after Jowie left Lamuria Gardens, he noticed that he had changed and looked distracted.  According to Jennings, the convict told him that had quarreled with the girlfriend he had gone to see.

 The reason for the quarrel remains a mystery. Since the dead tell no tale, the deceased who was 28 years at the time of her death cannot tell Kenyans what transpired.

But the guesses on why Kimani was killed has made Jowie, his former lover Jaqueline Maribe subjects of online trolls.

Ms. Kimani’s brother George Kimani told the court that he schooled with Jowie at Kenya Polytechnic and had visited his sister with him.

 At the night of visit, he testified that he slept with Jowie at the sofasets in the sitting room while his sister and girlfriend slept at the bedroom.

George said that on September 19, his late sister sent him a screen shot of the conversations between Jowie and herself. In the conversation, Jowie is said to have promised to visit her for a drink once he returned from Mombasa.

The deceased on the other hand, she replied that he (Jowie) should not spoil her brother.

In his testimony before the court, George said he believed that her sister and Jowie were friends.  He said that on the date they had visited, he did not know what the convict had done with the deceased when he was asleep.

At the same time, he stated that he was not aware whether there was another man in her life.

Jowie entertained the motive argument in his counter. He stated that he had no motive to kill the deceased.

He hinged his argument on Chief Inspector Maxwell Otieno’s evidence that the motive of the killer was not established.

 The other strand of the puzzle was whether the issue was about money. Ms. Kimani is said to be living in Juba, South Sudan and was the Managing Director of a company known as Millypol General Trading.

 Although not part of court evidence, Lamuria Gardens is a high end apartment and managing to rent the house there meant that she was somewhat well off.  With the envelope in mind, could it that the killer knew she had money with her?  What was the gun that Jowie is said to have borrowed from Brian Kassaine for?

Persons commenting X account had claims that it was out of ‘money’ that Ms. Kimani was killed.

The other question that is spiraling on social media about the murder is the second murder weapon. It was confirmed that the trachea was shot through and through and she was slit with a sharp object. 

However, was ballistic examination conducted to show whether it was the gun that Jowie had committed the crime? Were the cartridges ever recovered?

 In the meantime, Maribe was acquitted for lack of evidence to pin her to the murder.