A former United States International University-Africa (USIU-Africa) student has been sentenced to death for murdering his colleague, Sarah Akello Aruwa, after she was abducted in a plot that involved a Sh. 100,000 ransom demand to her family.
Justice Kanyi Kimondo sentenced 37-year-old Duncan Livingstone Kimathi after finding him guilty of murdering Akello between June 30 and July 1, 2012, in Kiamako, Githunguri, Kiambu County.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), through prosecutor Millicent Kigira, called 17 witnesses during the trial to establish the circumstances surrounding the abduction, ransom demands and killing.
The court heard that Akello, a final-year International Relations student at USIU-Africa, disappeared after telling a friend she was going to meet a man she had previously encountered at the university library.
Her family later received a phone call from a man using her mobile phone, demanding Sh. 100,000 for her release. Her mother, Hellen Atieno Aruwa, told the court that she negotiated the amount down to Sh. 70,000 before reporting the matter to Kasarani Police Station.
Akello’s boyfriend also testified that a man answered her phone when he tried to contact her and demanded that Sh. 100,000 be sent to the deceased’s mobile money account as ransom.
Further evidence showed that Akello had written the name Daniel Muriithi and a telephone number in her notebook as the person she intended to meet. However, the court established that Kimathi did not know Muriithi and concluded that the identity had been used as part of a plan to lure her.
Investigators subsequently recovered Akello’s undergarments and a blood-stained top from a house in Savannah where Kimathi’s girlfriend, Wairimu, lived.
A postmortem examination revealed that Akello had sustained a laceration at the back of her head and bruises on her neck. The cause of death was established as manual strangulation.
In his judgment, Justice Kimondo found that Akello had been deliberately lured into a trap before being abducted and held for ransom. The judge concluded that the circumstances of the crime demonstrated malice aforethought.
Kimathi was convicted of murder contrary to Section 203 as read with Section 204 of the Penal Code and sentenced to death.
The court also heard that the second accused person had absconded after being released on bail, prompting the judge to direct that the trial proceed in her absence.
