Lorraine Wambui was a fun-loving girl from Ruaka, Nairobi, where she lived with her parents.
In 2010, she became friends with Ashley Mukami Mungai after they met through a social media site known as ‘Ruaka Living It and Loving It’. Among their friends from Ruaka were George Macharia, Thomas Kimotho, Leah Said, Morris Katiba and Joseph Gikonyo.
On December 9, 2017, Lorraine, Ashley and Leah left Nairobi for Embu in a private vehicle driven by Morris. Their destination was Moi Stadium for a party dubbed ‘Smile Drive Event’. They linked up with Macharia, Gabriel, Kimotho and Gikonyo in Embu.
Lorraine’s mother, Peris Njeri Muchami, recalled that on that day while at home in Gatundu, her daughter sent her some photos of herself and two other women. She did not know her daughter’s friends.
Earlier, on December 3, 2017, Lorraine had gone home with her boyfriend Tony Irari, and Peris noted “they related well”.
After the show at Moi Stadium, Ashley said that, apart from Leah, they went to party at Java Bar and Restaurant in town where they checked in at around 9pm. Leah had excused herself, saying she was tired and instead went to Royal Mini Inn, where they had booked rooms.
The other seven friends went to the club, where they partied for six hours until 3am, when Ashley said she left with Morris. But Lorraine said she had not had enough fun and would stay on. According to Ashley, Lorraine was left with Macharia, Kimotho, Ngugi and Kibunyi. Ashley said she requested them to ensure they took Lorraine back to their hotel.
As they left, Lorraine asked Ashley to carry her purse. Ashley also reminded Lorraine not to stay out long as they were to return to Nairobi in the afternoon.
Missing
But, according to Ashley, Lorraine never turned up at the hotel and they had to delay their return trip to Nairobi for two days.
Ashley would call Macharia to ask him where Lorraine was but he replied they had left her screaming in the hotel.
Ashley would say she was not aware what Kadaddy (Macharia) could have done to her. Lorraine’s bag would later be found with Kadaddy, who explained it had been left behind and so he took it for safe custody.
Ashley would also say Lorraine had left Java between 6.44am and 7am.
Ashley would also suggest that between 8.13am and 8.45am Lorraine had called her to tell her that she was in Ngara. That, however, could not have been possible, as tragic events would later show.
According to Macharia, back at Java club, Lorraine had requested him to drop her off at Royal Mini hotel.
But Macharia said when they dropped off Lorraine at the hotel, they tried to take her to her room but she refused to share the room number. He said they left the hotel and drove to Nairobi, where they arrived at around 7.30am.
At around midday on December 10, Macharia said he called one Mukuria, who told him that Leah had informed him that Lorraine was missing.
They immediately formed a WhatsApp group to try to trace her. After a few days, they went to the Itabua Police Station to report that Lorraine was missing.
River sighting
Paline Mugendi Nyaga worked as a farmhand at Majimbo ya Chini in Embu.
He routinely went to the banks of the river Kapingazi to cut up Napier grass. He would push the fodder on a wheelbarrow up the hill to his boss’s farm. It’s a task he had become accustomed to and which he whiled away uneventfully. That was until the morning of December 10, 2017.
Mugendi was with his friend Kennedy Thiong’o on their way home at 6am when they met a woman. The woman, wearing a light grey dress, was carrying a bottle of alcohol and she was heading to the river.
That woman was Lorraine.
Bar sighting
Irene Wanjiku was a bar attendant at the City Man Bar in Embu on December 10, 2017 when, between 7am and 7.30am, a woman staggered in and demanded to be served.
She had been dropped off by a boda boda rider. She bought a bottle of Kenya Cane and a small soda, which she paid for via M-Pesa.
Earlier, Francis Kimathi, a boda boda rider, who was known to Mugendi, had been on his way to his home at Mutunduri, near Kangaru Church.
A woman outside Java Bar and Restaurant had flagged him down. She had requested a lift to the Royal Mini Inn. Kimathi said the woman gave him her phone to call a friend to go to the hotel. He recalled she was speaking coherently.
Kimathi said he dropped her at Royal Mini Inn. She paid him through M-Pesa and then walked towards the restaurant. He left.
On the same day, at around 7.30am, Thomas Gitonga was riding his motorcycle on Mama Ngina Street. He said a brown woman in a black sleeveless dress approached him and asked to be dropped off at the Kapingazi river.
Gitonga said the woman looked drunk and so he sought a clarification from her whether she wanted to go to the Rupingazi or the Kapingazi river.
But she responded that she wanted to be taken to the Kapingazi river. On the way, they had stopped by a pub, City Man Bar, and the woman had bought a bottle of Kenya Cane and a soda.
They then rode towards the Kapingazi river, where he said he had dropped off the woman, who was unknown to him. He said they had conversed in Kiswahili and he had dropped her off opposite Cathmores, where tree seedlings are sold.
This is where Mugendi, who was pushing a wheelbarrow laden with fodder, and his friend Thiong’o had encountered the woman, Lorraine.
Thiong’o said after they had parted ways, he never saw his friend that day.
Lorraine’s mother recalled on the evening of December 10 that her son Michael had told her that he had talked to his sister and that she was crying. She had then called her daughter but she could not be reached. She decided to call Lorraine’s boyfriend, Tony Irari. Irari told her he did not know where his girlfriend was.
But he had given Lorraine’s mother the phone number of one of her friends. The friend had told her that they had gone to Java together but had parted ways. She informed Lorraine’s mother that she had also travelled to Embu to report the matter at the Itabua Police Station.
An arrest
Later, Thiong’o would be told that Mugendi had been arrested in connection with a phone and that the body of a woman had been found in the river.
He would identify the body seven days later, confirming it resembled that of the woman he had encountered while with Mugendi on December 10.
Investigator Robert Karanja said his two colleagues who had been on the case earlier had handed over a black phone, an Infinix with the model number 358048404354620. The detective said the phone had been recovered from Mugendi at Majimbo estate.
The phone had been tracked down with the help of Safaricom. Mugendi could not explain how he came into possession of the device.
Lorraine’s mother said her daughter’s phone was black and that it was recovered even though she did not know the mobile number on the SIM card.
Lorraine’s brother had tried calling her between 9am and 10am on December 10 but the phone was not answered.
Later, Lorraine’s mother sought the help of her brother Dennis Wakahenya in the search for her daughter. While in a matatu, Wakahenya saw a crowd near a river next to the Itabua Police Station. When he went to the scene, he discovered the people were looking at a body being retrieved from the river.
What post-mortem revealed
On December 18, Wakahenya identified Lorraine’s body at Embu Level Five Hospital for a post-mortem examination.
Dr Moses Njue, who conducted the procedure, said the body had a hematoma on the back of the head measuring five centimetres in diameter and that there was bruising of the muscles under the neck on the front that was moderate.
When he opened the skin on the neck, he saw bruising (collection of blood) that was of moderate degree and so he concluded that strangulation could not be ruled out.
Dr Njue also said the pressure on the neck was caused by a blunt object, and that if she had been thrown into the river dead she could not have had injuries.
He reiterated that the head was swollen and the cause was a blunt object.
He also explained that the bruises on the body were inflicted between the time that she disappeared and when her body was found.
Mugendi’s murder trial
These accounts emerged during Mugendi’s trial for the murder of Lorraine.
In his defence, the accused said police officers found him by the river watering miraa and arrested him.
He was taken to the Itabua Police Station on accusations of murder. He denied he was found with the phone.
But High Court Judge L. Njuguna noted that investigators with help from Safaricom had recovered the phone from the accused, who could not explain how he came into possession of the phone.
The judge also noted that investigators had requested Safaricom to give them the number that was paired with that of Lorraine and which was being used through her phone.
“A person found with an item recently stolen who fails to explain how he came into possession of the item is presumed to have stolen the item,” Justice Njuguna ruled on February 23.
“It is clear that any individual arming himself with a weapon and applying the kind of force that was applied on the deceased could not have had any other intention but to cause either the death or grievous harm to the deceased herein.
“Malice aforethought can thus be inferred not only from the weapons used to inflict injuries but also the nature of the injuries inflicted on the deceased resulting (in) her death.
“In the end, I find that the prosecution has proved the case of murder against the accused person and I therefore find him guilty as charged and convict him accordingly.” BY DAILY NATION