NLC official was raped then strangled
Zadock Angira and Bernice Mbugua
National Land Commission (NLC) deputy director of communications Jennifer Wambua was raped before being strangled with bare hands, an autopsy revealed yesterday.
The post-mortem revealed that Wambua sustained ‘defence injuries’ with the pathologist concluding the deceased was conscious and tried to resist during the attack on her.
Autopsy on her body was conducted at the Montezuma Funeral Home by Chief Government pathologist Johansen Oduor, family pathologist Joseph Ndung’u, Homicide detectives and their Government Chemist counterparts.
Samples were collected for further toxicology and forensic analysis
Detectives on Wednesday revealed that the deceased had prior to her death received at least 58 calls from strangers.
It was revealed that some of the strange calls were disconnected before the deceased picked.
Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) sleuths are analysing the call data to establish the identity of the people or the registered owners of the mobile telephone numbers.
Possible link to case
Preliminary investigations also point to a possible link to the Sh122 million fraud case in which the deceased was a key witness.
It is however believed that the deceased deliberately left her phone in the car, further complicating the probe.
On Wednesday, homicide detectives camped for hours at the NLC offices just a day after they visited the scene where the body of Ms Wambua was found in Ngong Forest.
At the NLC offices, the detectives retrieved CCTV footage and grilled some of her colleagues. Part of her movements were clearly captured on camera.
Cover up trail
The DCI said the murder appeared well planned and the killers tried to cover up the trail. At the scene, for example, there was no clue indicating a vehicle had been used to dump the body.
Milimani Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi yesterday said the death of Ms Wambua was a blow to the proceedings of the case.
She was a State witness in a case where former Broadcasting and Telecommunication PS Sammy Itemere, Lugari MP Ayub Savula and 17 others were charged with stealing Sh200 million from the Government Advertising Agency (GAA).
“It’s very sad the court has lost a witness who was actually in the midst of giving her testimony.
Having completed her evidence-in-chief, it was going to be a very intense cross-examination because of the evidence she had given at length,” said the Magistrate.
Magistrate Andayi however noted Wambua’s death would not distract him from proceeding with the case.
