NAIROBI, Kenya April 22 -Police have released a video that captured a man believed to have lured university student Rita Waeni Muendo and killed her cold blood in an apartment in Roysambu area on January 15, 2024.
Waeni, a former Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) student, was brutally murdered and the body dismembered by a man who also demanded a Sh500,000 ransom from her father for her release.
The video released by the detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) captured the woman in her last moments before she was murdered. She is seen walking alongside the man in Roysambu area to the apartment where the murder took place.
Detectives have now asked members of public to help in identifying the suspected killer. He is captured wearing a white hat, black jeans and black pullover and white shoes.
Waeni was buried at her parents’ home in Mukimwani Village, Kisau location, Makueni County on February 5.
The owner of the apartment told police the killer booked the room on Saturday, January 13 at 3 pm. However, it was not until the next day that the discovery was made, after the caretaker reported finding suspicious polythene bags and a blood-soaked bed sheet on the staircase.
The family later came out to reveal that Waeni had left her aunt’s house in Syokimau to meet a friend.
Officers who visited the scene found the dismembered body without a head, which was later found in a dam in Kiambu.
The head was identified by the family on January 25 during an autopsy procedure conducted by Chief Government Pathologist Dr. Johansen Oduor who stated that the findings indicated that Waeni died of strangulation before she was brutally dismembered by her killer who is believed to have used a hacksaw.
The killer had used Waeni’s phone to demand the ransom. The killer had also sent a photo of the deceased, while lying down, using her phone as he prepared to kill her using a hacksaw as part of efforts to push them to send the money he had demanded.
The deceased had been in contact with her killer as she moved to the agreed destination. However, no more details are available on who else she met as her phone is also missing.
The two only communicated through Instagram and were in communication until the day they met.
At the rental apartment, detectives believe that the man killed Waeni inside the bathroom, and it is suspected she was drugged before being killed.
According to the investigations, the main suspect stayed in Ruaka, Kiambu county for about four days before the killing. Detectives for the second time visited Ruaka on Tuesday as they pursued leads to unravel the gruesome murder.
The dismembered body was found at the garbage collection point of Green House apartment along TRM drive.
The deceased joined the man who had earlier checked into the Airbnb on Saturday at around 3pm but the man is said to have left for an unknown destination around 5am.
The caretaker, Mark Auma said he went to check the house at around 9.20am and noticed some blood stains on the stairs.
He checked the house and found it very clean and there was no one inside. He followed the blood stains which led her to the garbage collection point where they found the remains of a woman aged about 24.
The body had been chopped into pieces and stuffed inside polythene bags and police say the killer used a hacksaw. The suspect is said to have switched off his phone, number 0101053854, as soon as he left the premises.
The phone number is registered in a woman’s name and the first call he made, while booking the room, was from Ruaka.
The man who was at around 4.20pm captured on CCTV when he went for the room’s key appeared to be in a hurry and was wearing a white cap and specks in what appears was to hide his identity.
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