A court heard Thursday that a suspect in the murder of 28-year-old business woman Monica Kimani last year offered to have a security company help find her killers.
While testifying before High Court Judge James Wakiaga, Mr George Kimani, a brother to the deceased, said that Mr Julius Irungu, aka Jowie, asked him to allow a security company help them solve the murder.
Mr Kimani disclosed that he had contacted Mr Irungu while seeking to be connected to the media so as to have his sister’s murder reported. However, he said, Mr Irungu advised him to consider the help of a security company instead of involving the media.
“He asked if we knew who had done it, he said the case won’t go far if media is involved, he said a security company could help but we felt we needed the media,” said Mr Kimani.
The court also heard that despite the fact that both Mr Kimani and Mr Irungu were known to each other as friends, Mr Irungu did not mention to Mr Kimani that he was present at his sister’s house on September 19, 2018, the night she was killed.
Mr Kimani gave a harrowing account of how he had to break into his sister’s house, together with the caretaker, gardener, landlord and finding the body of the deceased lying in a bathtub. He told court that his mother was frantically looking for the sister on phone on the morning she was found dead.
When the mother could not get her daughter on phone, she contacted him to find out why she was unreachable. While he tried to call and text her without success, he drove with his girlfriend to Monica’s house.
He said they found her door locked and had to get the landlord’s permission to have the door broken. But before breaking the door, they asked the gardener to jump into the house through a window so as to open the door and find out the whereabouts of the deceased.
The gardener returned looking confused and asked them to just break the door from outside in order to get in.
While they were standing outside the house after finding the body of the victim, the court heard, a neighbour came by and disclosed that he was at the house together with Mr Irungu and another man identified as Owen the night before she was found dead.
Mr Kimani told the court that he contacted their father who came along with an uncle who later notified the media about the gruesome murder.
Mr Kimani said that Owen, who has already testified before court, had tried reaching out to him through another person identified as Jimmy, but he advised him to simply record a statement with the police instead of talking to him.
He said that he only tried to find out who was present at the house on the fateful night and never pursued communication with Jimmy or Mr Irungu.
When prosecution showed him photos of his sister’s house, he could not hold back tears as he gave his testimony.
Mr Kimani described the deceased as hardworking, open-minded, someone who trusts easily, a good boss and a dear friend to him.
He also said Monica was to fly out to Dubai to meet with her boyfriend, Yasir Mohammed, on the morning she was found dead.
Thursday, Mr Irungu pleaded with the court to consider freeing him on bail but the judge said the matter will be determined when the trial resumes hearing on November 26.
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