A High Court in Kibera has heard that a mobile phone belonging to murdered Multimedia University of Kenya student Sylvia Kemunto Ayaye was discovered among church offerings during the counting of collections.
The court was told that an Oppo mobile phone was found among the offerings at Jesus Is Alive Ministries on April 2, 2025, three days after Sylvia was allegedly murdered.
The witness, who serves as the church administrator, testified that the phone was kept in safe custody until police officers arrived looking for it.
She told the court that investigators informed church officials that call data had placed the deceased’s phone within the church compound. “We kept the phone in safe custody until police officers came looking for it. They informed us that call data indicated that the deceased’s phone had been within the church compound,” the witness testified.
The testimony was presented during the murder trial of Erick Mutinda Philip, who is accused of killing Sylvia on March 30, 2025, at Multimedia University of Kenya along Magadi Road in Lang’ata Sub-County, Nairobi County.
The court also heard testimony from Silas Ochieng Elphine Otieno, who was in charge of the university’s security department at the time of the incident. Otieno told the court that the university received a report concerning Sylvia’s disappearance and subsequently worked with investigating officers in efforts to trace her whereabouts.
According to Otieno, a search team on April 2, 2025, discovered a decomposing body inside a water reservoir tank located on the rooftop of a university hostel. Police were alerted and took over the scene, where the body was later identified as that of Sylvia.
Mutinda is facing a murder charge over Sylvia’s death. The prosecution is continuing to present witnesses as the court hears evidence surrounding the circumstances of the student’s disappearance and subsequent death.
