Rita Waeni murder: All suspects released for lack of evidence

All the suspects arrested in connection to the murder of JKUAT student Rita Waeni have been released from police custody for lack of proof against them.

Waeni was murdered in mid-January at a short-stay rental apartment (Airbnb) along TRM Drive in Kasarani, Nairobi—one of at least 16 femicide incidents recorded in Kenya in January. Her body parts were dumped in a dustbin and her head was found days later inside a dam on the outskirts of the city.

The last group of suspects - Kelvin Mutiso, Eugene Omondi and Brian Kinoti - was freed Monday by Makadara Chief Magistrate Tito Gesora. The court's decision came after the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) told the court that the probe by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) did not link the three to the murder.

The three were arrested alongside Airbnb owner Priscila Maina after they were found near the crime scene.

Earlier, Corporal Philip Kilonzo had told Senior Principal Magistrate Justus Kituku that Mutiso and Omondi were not residents of the apartment where the offence was committed but that the DCI wanted to establish the reason for their visit at the time Waeni was killed.

“The investigating team has also confirmed that (Omondi) is a student of JKUAT ... investigators are yet to establish the coincidence,” said Corporal Kilonzo, who is in the homicide unit.

Only Kinoti has a house on the third floor of the building named Greenhouse Apartments.

Kituku released Maina on January 26, 2024, after Corporal Kilonzo made the request, saying she needed to report to investigators at the DCI headquarters twice a week.

The DCI and the ODPP intend to make her the star witness in the case should Waeni’s killer be arrested.

The three men were initially held at the Kasarani Police Station and later transferred to Muthaiga after the DCI’s Homicides Unit took over the investigation.

William Opia and Johnbull Asbor at the Makadara Law Courts at the Makadara Law Courts in Nairobi on January 22, 2024, over the murder of JKUAT student Rita Waeni. (Photo: Joseph Ndunda)

The other suspects in the case - Nigerian nationals William Ovie Opia and Johnbull Asbor - were released in January and directed to present themselves to the DCI headquarters for investigations once a week.

Opia and Asbor were tracked down by the DCI’s Criminal Research and Intelligence Bureau (CRIB), whose detectives found them in an apartment in Ndenderu, Kiambu County, on January 21, 2024.

The CRIB said they had the mobile phone used by the person who booked Maina’s Airbnb, where Waeni was killed.

Reached for comment, Martin Nyuguto, boss of the DCI's Homicide Unit, told The Eastleigh Voice that he could not give details of the probe.

DCI officers who spoke on the matter in confidence said it has become difficult to find Waeni’s killers but they remain optimistic that justice will be served.