KIMANI MURDER CASE, 2018- Maribe and Jowie to wait a little longer to know fate in Monica Kimani murder case
Joseph Irungu alias Jowie and former Citizen TV news anchor Jacqueline Maribe will have to wait a little longer to know their fate in Monica Kimani murder case a business.
On Friday 10, February, Lady Justice Grace Nzioka was scheduled to deliver her ruling on whether the two have a case to answer in the gruesome murder of Ms Kimani. The judge postponed the decision to a later date.
According to information from the court’s registry, the judge was held up and could not deliver the ruling as had been scheduled. The accused were informed they will be notified of the new date.
Jowie and Maribe are accused of killing Ms Kimani on the night of September 19, 2018 at Lamuria Gardens Apartment in Kilimani area within Nairobi County a few hours after she returned from a business trip in South Sudan.
At the close of the prosecution case in December 2022, senior state prosecutor Wangui Gichuhi pleaded with the court to find that the two have a case to answer on account of overwhelming evidence and witnesses testimonies that linked them with the murder.
Ms Gichuhi in her submissions argued that the two unlawfully caused Ms Kimani’s death, had a common intention to kill and were positively identified by witnesses.
According to the prosecution, the evidence showed that Jowie stole an identity card to access Ms Kimani and then met with Maribe who was waiting for him to accomplish the crime before they went to have drinks in a club then headed home.
“The wounds the deceased suffered from including her slit throat were so magnitude that it shows their intention was to cause irreparable harm to her life,” said Gichuhi.
She submitted that Jowie was positively identified by several witnesses as the last person seen at Ms Kimani’s house, which was confirmed by DNA analysis of blood samples from her shorts.
Ms Gichuhi stated that Maribe who at the time was dating Jowie was aware of the killing by giving him her vehicle to use in the murder before trying to conceal the crime by lying to police and burning clothes to destroy evidence.
According to the prosecution, Maribe conspired with Jowie to create a false narrative that they had been attacked by robbers while entering their house at Royal Park Estate in Langata where Jowie shot himself to cover up his actions.
“At no point did she provide information to police about the murder incident only to be seen on Citizen TV the following day announcing the sad death of Ms Kimani when she was fully aware of what had happened,” said Gichuhi.
Ms Gichuhi added that the report from the government chemist proved that the late Kimani’s blood samples were found in Jowie’s clothes and that his phone call data placed him at the scene of murder.
But Jowie and Maribe through their lawyers argued that the prosecution has failed to discharge the burden of prove and asked the judge to set them free.
Jowie’s defence was that the prosecution used a wrong theory that he killed the businesswoman merely because he was the last person seen with her while Maribe claimed that she was at work on the fateful day and never met the deceased.
Should the judge find that they have a case to answer, they will be put on their defence and decide whether to call witnesses to prove their innocence.
