Driver arrested over murder of girlfriend detained for 14 days
Police in Nairobi have been granted 14 days to detain a matatu driver as they investigate him for allegedly killing his lover and setting the house on fire on Wednesday to conceal evidence.
A Chief Magistrate’s court at Makadara law courts yesterday granted police authority to detain Ambrose Murimi Karugu, 35, in order to complete investigations into the death of a girlfriend that he had been living with.
Kayole Sub County Deputy Criminal Investigations Officer Francis Milliah said Karugu was arrested on Wednesday evening.
“We managed to arrest him from his hideout. We want to establish circumstances surrounding the death of the girl and the burning of the house that he has been paying rent for,” Milliah told People Daily.
Police said preliminary investigations reveal that Karugu, a driver with Mwiki Matatu Sacco, may have murdered the woman at their residence at Kayole junction on Kangundo Road few days ago and disappeared.
None of their neighbours suspected that the woman had been murdered.
On Wednesday morning, he went back to the house on the fourth floor and set it on fire and disappeared again. Smoke was seen billowing from the house and neighbours alerted the police officers.
“Police officers visited the scene and found the house locked. Entry was gained through breaking the door and the fire was put out. Inside the bedroom the decomposing body of the woman was found lying on bed with blood stains on the mouth and ears,” a senior officer said.
Detectives established the woman was staying with the driver, though they had been quarrelling the last few weeks.
“The suspect and the deceased had been having domestic quarrels almost on a daily basis. Neighbours, however, reported that the woman had not been seen nor heard from since Sunday,” police said.
Investigations
The body was transferred to the mortuary awaiting post-mortem and identification even as police launch manhunt for the fugitive.
Police said the man could have set the house on fire to make it look like the death was as a result of the fire.
“We are looking for him and believe he deliberately set the house on fire to destroy evidence of how the woman was killed,” a senior detective said.
“Preliminary investigations show that the woman was already dead, and the body had started decomposing before the fire,” he added.
Further investigations and autopsy seek to establish certain things about what happened to the victim before the fire and the Post-mortem interval (PMI), the time that has elapsed since a person has died.
