Police to detain girl for two weeks over death of four siblings
The 15-year-old girl who was arrested on Sunday over the death of her three siblings and a cousin will remain in police custody for the next 14 days to enable detectives complete investigations.
Kikuyu Senior Resident Magistrate Catherine Mburu granted police a request to detain the minor. Already, detectives under Kikuyu sub-county Criminal Investigations Officer George Muriuki have started the process of exhuming the bodies of two of the four victims for postmortem examination.
Police have also launched investigations into claims that the parents could be next on the murder list. No charges were preferred against the minor, who appeared before Magistrate Mburu.
The case was heard in camera since the suspect is a minor. An official from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Cliff Machogu, told the media that the girl would undergo mental and age assessment tests during the 14 days granted to the police.
“Two of the deceased are Liam Gichuhi and Valeria Muthoni. The bodies of the other two children underwent postmortem examinations before burial,” he said. Machogu added that an alleged confession by the minor is not admissible in law unless she confesses in the presence of a Senior Superintendent of Police.
The suspect will remain at a remand home until September 12 when the case will be mentioned.
On Saturday, the minor allegedly confessed that between July last year and this month, she killed her siblings — brother Liam Gichuhi (15 months) and sisters Valeria Muthoni and Rachel Wanjiru, five and seven years, respectively.
The crimes were reportedly committed at the parents’ home in Gikambura, Kikuyu sub-county.
The minor is also accused of killing her cousin, who was 20 months old, at Gathiga village, Kabete sub-county, by drowning him in a well last month.
Police say the suspect disclosed the deaths through a phone call to her father from school.
“She borrowed a phone from a teacher and called her father to confess that she had killed the minors,” said a police source.
When schools closed during the recent elections, the girl allegedly visited her grandmother at Gathiga, Kabete, during which time her cousin, Martin Kiogora, disappeared mysteriously.
A search was launched by relatives and neighbours who found his lifeless body in a well within the compound.
On Saturday, the girl’s devastated father filed a report against his daughter at Kikuyu Police Station. He accused her of killing his three children.
He told investigators that before his daughter’s confession, the family thought the deaths were either natural or the result of witchcraft.
