The court granted police permission to detain Nigerians William Ovie Opia and Johnbull Asbor for eight days as they probe their role in the murder.
Waeni’s mutilated body was discovered in a trash bin at an apartment on TRM Drive, Kasarani, but her head was nowhere to be found.
On Sunday evening, the two were nabbed in Ndenderu area, Kiambu County, shortly after a woman’s head was found at Ite Dam at Kimuga village.
The head is suspected to be Waeni’s, but it requires more forensic tests to confirm.
Waeni’s family could not identify her head on Monday at the City Mortuary, even though the police had claimed that they had retrieved her head from the dam in Kiambu on Sunday, January 21.
The records at the City Mortuary where the head was taken showed that it belonged to an unknown female adult.
The deceased’s missing mobile phone was also recovered at the scene.
Police said that the two Nigerians are William Ovie Opia, whose passport has expired, and Johnbull Asbor, who the DCI said had no travel documents when he was arrested.
Asbor told the detectives that he misplaced his passport two years ago.
The DCI detectives traced the suspects to an apartment in Ndenderu in Kiambu County, where they arrested them on Sunday.
Constable Benjamin Wangila of Kasarani DCI offices told a Makadara court on Monday January 22 that the suspects lived close to where Rita Waeni’s head was found.
At the house where the two suspects lived, a hatchet, butcher’s knife, a national identity card belonging to a Kenyan (name withheld), six mobile phones, three laptops, 10 SIM cards from different teleco service providers, and other items were seized.
Wangila said in an affidavit filed in the court that the investigation team wants to get call data records for all the SIM cards and mobile phone numbers recovered from the suspects to determine if they were involved in the murder.
Wangila said that the suspects need to be escorted to the Government Chemist for blood samples extraction for DNA analysis and comparison with the samples that were taken from the crime scene.
He said that the suspects are likely to flee since they do not have a permanent place to stay.
Wangila sought orders to hold the suspects for eight days at the Kasarani police station, which were granted by Senior Principal Magistrate Agnes Mwangi of Makadara Law Courts.
They will remain in custody until January 31.
Police said that Opia purchased a hatchet from an online vendor and he told investigators that he had bought it for self-defense.
Wangila said that he is investigating a case of murder contrary to section 203 is read with section 204 of the Penal Code, which was reported at Kasarani police station vide OB34/14/01/2024 by Priscila Maina, the owner of the short stay – rental apartment where Ms Waeni was killed.
Maina, who is in custody, told the police that she got information from the apartment’s caretaker that there were blood stains from her apartment, which led her to a garbage collection point on the ground floor, where body parts were found stuffed in garbage bags, but the head was missing.
Discussion about this post