The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) have asked the court to deny bail to five people accused of killing Dr Victoria Nthunya Mutiso, citing concerns over witness interference, destruction of evidence and possible flight.
Corporal Romana Odour of the Homicide Investigations Bureau says in an affidavit that the suspects are facing murder charges alongside other alleged accomplices who are yet to be brought before court.
Investigators allege that Dr Mutiso’s killing was connected to a dispute over a 20-acre property in Mlolongo involving the deceased, her husband and some of the accused persons.
According to the affidavit, the first three accused — Rose Mbithe Mulwa, Angela Mulwa and Chris Mulwa — were known to the deceased and allegedly formed part of a wider group that spent about four months planning and facilitating the attack.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations alleges that the group monitored the deceased and her family, gathered personal information and coordinated communications and logistics before the killing.
Investigators further allege that electronic and telecommunications evidence places some of the accused at meetings and in communications linked to the alleged plan.
The prosecution has also cited an alleged July 7 incident in which Dr Mutiso reported being confronted by two armed people riding a motorcycle near Junction Mall. The fourth accused, Elijah Kimoi, is alleged to have been the pillion passenger.
Three weeks later, investigators allege that Dr Mutiso was intercepted while travelling in an Uber and shot dead.
Searches conducted after the arrests allegedly led to the recovery of photographs of the deceased and her family, SIM cards, an A7 notebook containing details of the Uber vehicle and copies of her husband’s identification documents.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations also alleges that a vehicle taken from the deceased’s Mlolongo home was recovered from the Kerarapon residence of the third accused.
Kimoi, who investigators say was a serving police officer at the time, is accused of firing the fatal shot. The prosecution alleges that he fled after the incident and later burnt the clothes he had been wearing in an attempt to eliminate forensic evidence.
The fifth accused, Maritim Kimutai, was arrested at Pangani Police Station on August 22 while allegedly visiting a suspect who had agreed to cooperate with investigators.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations says information obtained from Kimutai’s phone assisted investigators in tracing other suspects, including three alleged accomplices who had fled to Uganda.
The prosecution says investigations remain active and that several alleged accomplices, including some senior police officers, are still at large.
It has also identified the deceased’s husband as a key prosecution witness and described him as particularly vulnerable because of his relationship with some of the accused and the trauma arising from his wife’s death.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations says some witnesses are under the protection of the Witness Protection Agency and could be vulnerable to contact or influence if the suspects are released.
The prosecution has asked the court to find that ordinary bail conditions would not adequately address the alleged risks and to keep the five suspects in custody.
