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Murder suspect Joseph Irungu ‘shot himself’ in Maribe’s bedroom – police


Mr Joseph Irungu, the prime suspect in the horror killing of a woman in Nairobi two weeks ago, shot himself inside his fiancée Jacque Maribe’s bedroom, investigators now believe.

The bullet punched a small hole in his chest, exited through his back, and ricocheted off Ms Maribe’s bedroom wall.

Investigators on Saturday found a wheat flour patch over the hole in the wall while the weapon was found hidden in the ceiling of a neighbour, who has since been arrested.

COMMIT SUICIDE

It is not clear whether Mr Irungu wanted to commit suicide or lay a false trail, but detectives suspect a strong link between the murder of Ms Monica Kimani in her Kilimani apartment and the self-inflicted gunshot wound on Mr Irungu hours later on the other side of Nairobi, in Lang’ata.

Mr Irungu, his fiancée Ms Maribe, and their mutual friend Brian Kassaine, in whose house the gun was found, are in police custody.

Mr Irungu was arraigned in a Kiambu court last week while Ms Maribe — a celebrated news anchor and reporter at Royal Media Services’ Citizen Television — and Mr Kassaine are expected in court Monday morning.

A government source told the Nation on Sunday that detectives are reviewing Mr Irungu’s movements around the city using CCTV footage from major roads and his mobile phone signals on the night Ms Kimani was killed.

This, the source added, will be cross-referenced with his statement to the police for any inconsistencies on his alibi.

ATTACKED BY GUNMEN

At 7.05pm on Friday, September 21, Mr Irungu, in the company of Ms Maribe and Mr Kassaine, walked to the report desk at Lang’ata Police Station located about 200 metres from his residence, and told officers that he had been attacked by gunmen as he drove out of Ms Maribe’s residence at 1:30am the previous night, about 19 hours earlier.

The attackers, he claimed, had escaped on foot. He said he alerted Mr Kassaine after he was shot, who rushed him to hospital.

Guards at the estate have said they did not hear any gunshot or commotion on the night Mr Irungu says he was attacked.

Police officers, too, did not believe his statement as it had many circumstantial gaps.

“When he was asked to produce the clothes he wore during the shooting, he did not,” an officer in the investigating team told the Nation.

“The car he was driving, a Toyota Allion, registration KCA 031E, had no bullet hole, and there were just too many contradictions in his story.”

Read the full story here.

SOURCE: Daily Nation