The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) has secured a death sentence of former university student convicted of murdering his colleague in a case involving abduction and ransom demands.
The court sentenced the 37-year-old man on Thursday, October 29, 2026, after finding him guilty of murder committed between June 30 and July 1, 2012, in Kiamako, Githunguri, Kiambu County.
This followed a trial in which the prosecution established that the victim had been deliberately lured into a trap, abducted and subsequently killed after a ransom demand.
The prosecution presented 17 witnesses who helped establish the circumstances surrounding the disappearance, ransom negotiations and murder, leading to the conviction.
The case began when the victim, a final-year International Relations student, told a friend she was going to meet a man she had previously encountered at a university library.
During the trial, the court heard that the abductors contacted the victim’s family and demanded Ksh100,000 in exchange for her release, prompting her mother to negotiate.
According to the victim’s mother, a man called her using her daughter’s phone and demanded the ransom, which she negotiated down to Ksh70,000 before reporting the matter at Kasarani Police Station.
The victim’s boyfriend also told the court that when he called her phone, a man answered and demanded Ksh100,000 be sent to her mobile money account.
Investigators examined a notebook in which the victim had recorded plans to meet someone of key interest in the case, together with his telephone contact.
However, the court established that the accused did not know Muriithi and concluded that the identity had been used as part of a plan to lure the victim.
