The body of a woman who disappeared last week has been recovered buried in a shallow grave, along the banks of river Molo, in Mogotio, Baringo county.
Detectives based in Mogotio exhumed the decomposing remains of Veronicah Kanini, 42, from a shallow grave at a secluded snake infested thicket, along the river that drains its waters into Lake Baringo.
This is after they were led to the scene of the murder by her suspected killer Moses Kipchirchir Ruto, 34.
Before Kanini met her death, she was a well known trader who sold seat covers in Mogotio town and would travel from her home in Nakuru every morning to sell her merchandise before returning in the evening.
She would first take measurements of her clients’ seats, travel to Nakuru and tailor make them to their specifications, before delivering them in Mogotio, 42 kilometres away.
This was her trend for the past 3 years.However, on the day she met her painful death, her husband Marco Njuguna, had received a call from his wife at around 6pm, asking him to send Sh3,000 urgently.
As he inquired from her why she needed the money, the keen husband heard a male voice in the background instructing her to speak in Swahili.
This further exasperated the already worried man, who immediately set off for Mogotio in search of his beloved wife.
Immediately after calling her husband, Kanini called two neighbours who sent her an unspecified amount of money.
Investigations into the whereabouts of the now missing woman were immediately launched and after failing to trace her in Mogotio town that night, the DCIO contacted crime busters from the elite Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau based at DCI headquarters, to help unravel the puzzle.
A day later on November 13, the main suspect into the murder Moses Kipchirchir Ruto, was busted after detectives stormed his house under the cover of darkness.
Yesterday afternoon, the suspect who had earlier denied being involved in the woman’s disappearance, confessed to killing Kanini by strangling her on Friday night.
Ruto told the detectives that after killing her, he left her body at the scene of the murder, before returning the following morning at dawn carrying a jembe.
He used the jembe to dig the shallow grave where he burried her remains. Preliminary investigations conducted by cybercrime and crime scene experts, have placed Ruto at the scene of Kanini’s grievous murder.
Meanwhile, Kanini’s body has been moved to Nakuru municipal mortuary pending postmortem. Custodial orders had earlier been issued at the Eldama Ravine Law Courts, granting detectives 14 days to complete investigations into the murder.
