M-Pesa money linked to cold, gruesome murder of US-based couple

A Nyamira High Court was taken through how the US-based couple was killed in cold blood at their Nyamakoroto home in Nyamira County, eight months ago.

The court was told how the four suspects in custody transfered money from mobile phones belonging to 62-year-old Edward Nyagechi Morema and his partner Grace Mong’ina aged 58.

The two love birds were killed on the night of March 20, 2023 in their palatial home that they had just settled in. The money was apparently transferred on the night the two were hacked to death.

Neighbours became curious after the couple failed to wake up early as was their routine. Nyagechi and Mong’ina lived in of Minneapolis, Minnesota and were on vacation in Kenya before they met their deaths whose motive is subject of police investigations although Peter Ondara Clement, Peris Ondara, Ezekiel Mogeni Migiro and Peter Njoroge Kirika have been linked to the murders courtesy of the Mpesa transfer.

Mong’ina’s body was found in her bedroom upstairs while that of Nyagechi was recovered in the garage on the ground floor.

An autopsy report released by government pathologist Dr Brian Ochieng indicated that the two died as a result of strangulation and blunt object injuries on their heads and upper limbs. Following a two-month manhunt, Ondara, Peris, Mogeni and Njoroge were arrested in connection with the incident. 

Peris is the wife of the late United States International University (USIU) Professor Zachary Mosoti who was the nephew to Nyagechi. Mosoti is the one who facilitated the slain couple's migration to the US before he died under mysterious circumstances in 2021.

A trial witness who initially was a suspect in the murder case narrated to the court how his friend Njoroge borrowed a mobile handset from him in the evening that preceded the night when Nyagechi and Mong’ina were slaughtered.

Charles Kibui Mbugua, a businessman at Mathioya told Justice Winfridah Okwany who is hearing the murder case that on the evening the offence was committed, Njoroge whom he identified as his neighbour and customer had gone to him requesting to use his mobile phone to receive some money he was expecting.

“I gave him my phone which I use for my butchery business because he told me his had a problem,” Mbugua told the court.

In his testimony, Mbugua said the mobile phone he gave lend Njoroge was registered under the name Douglas Mungai, a person he had formerly employed in his butchery shop but abandoned work and left the mobile phone behind.

According to Mbugua, the accused returned the phone back the following day at around 5.30pm but without a sim card. Upon inquiring why it did not have a simcard, Njoroge suspect informed him that it got lost and that he could not trace it. Mbugua further told the court that Njoroge later request him to throw away the mobile handset.

“He came after two weeks and told me that something terrible had happened to the phone and so, I should throw it away. He never told me what had happened,” said Mbugua.

The witness was arrested on May 2, 2023 at a bar in Mathioya, after which he helped the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in identifying his friend Njoroge. James Makobi, a DCI detective attached to a telecommunication company, Safaricom, revealed to the court that some Sh62,000 from the slain couple’s phones was transferred to the phone in question during the night of the killings.

According to Makobi, on March 20, 2023, at around 11.50pm, Sh30,000 from Mong’ina’s phone was transferred to the Mbugua’s mobile phone number after a similar transaction of Sh26,000 and Sh6,000 had been made from Nyagechi’s phone between 11.29pm and 11.32pm.

The witness’s mobile phone, the court heard, was also used to withdraw Sh35,000 from Cooperative Bank ATM branch in Limuru.

When Mbugua was taken to task by the four accused persons’ lawyer Sam Nyaberi on why he registered his phone in the name of a stranger, the prosecution witness told court he had allowed Mungai to register the phone in his name.

“I had opened a butchery and I asked Mungai to have a separate line so that he doesn’t mix butchery business with that of the bar,” he said.

The case will proceed on March 25, 2024 when the head of security at the Cooperative Bank and two other prosecution witnesses are expected to testify.